Sewing storage

As you might have guessed I am currently making attempts to sew at every opportunity and explore the loveliness that is my new machine.

That said it is still new and I am taking things slow and steady so as not to confuse myself.  So lots of little simple projects it is!

So while practicing on the machine I found myself irritated by the many charger wires gathering next to our computer.  So I decided to sew some little storage pots to hold all those annoying things that have no place to go. I learnt this technique from a sewing evening I go along to on Wednesdays.

I needed a reasonably strong fabric and a lovely friend recently gave me her old flared jeans.  Fabulously wide and fabulously funky!  A true ode to our 15 year old selves and the fabric is perfect for what I needed.

Now the jean leg is already a tube so I just cut it to the length I wanted.  I then did the same with the lining fabric.  I then sewed down the two edge seams of the lining to create the same tube as with the denim,

On the base of your fabric cut two squares out from each corner as below.

New Steps

This morning I have spent some time playing around with photos and opening up my ETSY shop.  I am using this as a trial to be honest - I've heard so many mixed reviews on people's successes and failures linking in with etsy that I decided to give it a shot and try it out myself.
 I've uploaded just 4 products because I am still preparing for the craft fair that is coming up so all my stock is needed to fill the table there.  Once that is done I plan to begin uploading more products regularly and just see how it goes.

I've already realized a few things - I need to learn to improve my photography skills and to do this effectively I need to be very efficient.  I can take reasonable pictures but then I upload them and set about attempting to do a bit of editing (of course armed with google) and see my photos turn into disaster areas.  I've tried something similar before when me and my husband did a batch of screen printing - our biggest challenge by far was the editing of photos to prepare the prints.  But with some time and patience we got much better and we ended up with some pretty cool prints ( well I thought so anyway ).  So a challenge for myself - in between everything else - is to work on photos.  On etsy you can't pick up your products, touch them and imagine them in your home or wardrobe so great photos are everything.
 The efficiency thing I guess is just about realizing that your time needs to be managed really well to craft, dream up ideas, shop for fabrics, edit photos and talk to potential customers - all that while holding a full time job, staying in touch with friends and loving blogging to you guys.  Well whatever happens so far I've been enjoying every second so I figure while I am still having fun I will continue!

Anyway it is a new step in my upcycling adventure so I will keep you posted on how it all goes!

Here is the link if you want to check it out!

ETSY SHOP!!!

Have fun browsing and as always feel free to feedback - I plan to share everything from this journey I'm on - the good, the bad and the massively embarrassing errors - on this blog so feedback to me might reduce some of my red faced moments!  Enjoy and link me up with your shops too so we can help each other out!