Spring colours

It's gorgeous weather here in sunny Canberra!

I've been inspired by spring and all the lovely little things blooming in my garden at the moment to start stitching with some of the colours I'm seeing around me.

I've had this gorgeous stash of fabrics for a while, and have been thinking what to do with them. Spurred on by a friend of mine's enthusiasm for all things quilty, I'm making her a quilted and appliqued wall hanging to hang in her new sewing room, starting with this patchworked background:

Travelling in style

A big thanks to The Sewing Summit for featuring Teapot & Snail's Overflow Bag in their Travel Handmade article. Go over and check out their site for lots of sewing fun and inspiration!

New things

Last weekend was the fabulous Quilt and Craft Fair which came to Canberra. I have to admit I went a little crazy and despite the fact that I had resolved to batten down my financial hatches this month I spent and spent and spent.

The good news is I've picked up some great things like bag handles and gorgeous trims. I have a cute little handbag pattern I am working on at the moment and I've decided to create an option in the pattern for working in a set of bought handles for those who'd like to try it. The trick is to make the pattern adaptable to a few different types of handles you might find on the market but also to provide the option of making your own handles from fabric - always handy if you just can't find the right thing at the store.

Also recently I've picked up some brilliant, and versatile, Mexican Oilcloth by Ben Elke. Check out his gorgeous range here on Me Too Please. I've been busying myself coming up with a few natty things that you haven't seen made from oilcloth before so stay tuned for that one. It's raining cats and dogs here in Canberra so I guess I've got no excuse but to get down to that sewing room and go for it!

Up and running

Hello everyone!

Teapot & Snail has been on Etsy for a while now but I was thinking there is so much going on behind the scenes that you don't see on the shop - I just had to share it in a blog.

Every time I design one of my sewing patterns there is a process I go through - thinking about what people need and want to make, finding ways to make things in the least complicated way possible and with materials that are easy to get hold of, and of course delving through the gorgeous myriad of fabrics available.

Sometimes the choices are so endless I don't know where to begin. Like this beautiful bouquet of goodies:

My current obsession is with the Japanese fabric house Kokka's Echino collection and above are two of their latest lovelies, Viewfinders and Sunglasses, which I used to create the enormous beach/travel tote, the Overflow bag:

It's a really simple pattern and holds a crazy amount of stuff. We do a lot of family trips to the coast so I couldn't live without mine. Check the pattern out here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/73726047/overflow-bag-pdf-sewing-pattern