U-handblog

...and the winner of the bag naming contest is...

2013-05-01T13:15:49+01:00

Thanks for all of your name suggestions for my latest bag design. There were soooo many catchy names to choose from it made me dizzy!

In the end we settled on: 'The Arc Angel Tote'

Pretty sounding, descriptive and a nice play on words. Well done to: Celtic Thistle Stitches please step forward, contact us and claim your prize! As soon as the kit is ready (almost there) we'll get it sent to you.

The Arc Angel Tote.

Suggestions for Bag Making Workshops Please...

2013-04-30T15:16:58+01:00

Yesterday I went to a local sewing studio to check out the suitability of the space for holding bag making workshops. Even a stinking rodden cold didn't dampen my excitement.

I think the studio will work fine. The space is bijoux (which is no bad thing as small classes are more relaxed for everyone), but it is bright, airy and cheerful.

At the mo I can only offer 1 day classes, though this could change later in year. At the mo I can do Wednesdays or Sat 10.30 - 4-30

Woo it's been a long time coming!

So now I've found a space (yay-sers!). The next thing to do is to find out what you'd like to get up to in a bag making workshop.

Here are a few suggestions (please do add more!)

Frame purse making
Newbie tote and zip purse pouch
3 fearless zippers
Any of my patterns (name which you'd like to do)
Wedding/party Minaudiere
Help with your bag pattern
Bag design 101

Over to you...please let me know what you'd like to learn about? Thanks in advance!

Name my new bag and win the kit for it!

2013-04-27T13:01:39+01:00

Hurray a new bag design! I'm back on the drawing board - love it! I really, really enjoyed putting this design together. I confess the pattern making did challenge my limited maths capabilities, but it's good to push the grey matter (every now and again).

It all started with the unusual double curve top edge of the bag. The top edge of the bag was inspired by my watching Raiders of the Lost Ark (again!). I loved the graceful sweep of the angel wings on the Ark itself. Inspiration is everywhere - thanks Harrison!

The new bag received the all-important 'squeal and cat walk posing in front of the mirror' reaction from the girls in the office. Only thing is there are so many cool features about this bag that we couldn't easily name it. The things I love about this bag are:

the pretty upturned pleats
the graceful sweeping double curved top edge
the chunky designer-looking trigger hooks
the graphic-looking solid colour straps
the super-roomy size
the way the bag looks very; 'New Yorker, Kate Spade' (least I think so).

This bag will be available as both as a PDF pattern and a Blank bag making kit.

Click on the pics to enlarge:

Roomy and very up-market-looking (just like me - hahahaha!) To make the best use of this design I think it's best to use stripy or geometric patterned fabrics. This way you will clearly see the upturn curve of the pleats contrasting with the downward curves of the top edge. Also the great thing about geometric patterns it that they make it sooo much easier to make everything symmetrical! FYI I used Heather Bailey, Garden District. home dec stripe in Dove.

She's a big and versatile gal, she'll will easily store your city shopping, picnic, beach, holiday gear and she'll do it all in style!

Finished size: 16in (W) x 16in (H) x 4in (D) (40.4cm x 40.5cm x 10cm)

Love love love the hardware! The glossy statement trigger hooks are what makes this tote look so grown up, professional (and New Yorker - Kate Spade). I mean really, does this bag look like it was handmade by a scruffy mum in her manky slippers? I think not. :)

Inside we have a spivvy trimmed inner pocket so we don't have to fish inside the depths for our keys, purse, phone and lippy.

So I hope you dig my new design as much as we do. Thing is we can't start offering the pattern until it has a name. Can you help?

Contest Details (please read carefully)

To one lucky winner I'll send a BLANK bag making kit (with pattern) for this bag. It will contain all you need except fabrics, thread and eyelet tool.

To enter all you have to do is comment on THIS PARTICULAR POST by:

Picking a name for this bag design. As a couple of pointers I tend NOT to name my items after girls names (such as 'Alice Purse' because IMHO that has little meaning...), instead I tend to lean towards names which in some way describe the item.
Please DO NOT focus on the fabric of this bag as this is a pattern only. Ta!
Enter as many times as you like.

**SORRY THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED**

Contest Official-ness :

I'll select the winning name in 3 days time - 30th April and announce the winner the following day-ish. Good luck!
I'll need to ask the winner to make a donation for the postage.
Sorry I can't notify winners, so please keep an eye for the winner announcement. This is made easier for you if you subscribe to this blog so you don't have to keep checking back, although it's always great to have you pop-in for a read :0)
Prizes which are not claimed within 3 weeks of the winner announcement will be carried forward to the next draw.
Sorry I can't reply to contest/draw comments, but I do love reading every single one :)

Mum decorates cake for 1st time ever - and does a respectable job of it!

2013-03-25T14:32:02+00:00

Yesterday was so nice. Our NCT group got together and celebrated our babies 1st birthday at one our friend's houses. Lovely relaxed colourful chaos (and I didn't know that was possible). The mums all decorated a carriage of a train each and we assembled the train at the party. It ened up looking pretty fab! The babies had a great time checking out my friends baby's cool toys and the parents drank beer (I drank juice). It was great seeing how the little ones are coming along...sniff!

Mabel's cho-cho carriage. Lemon drizzle cake covered with coloured ready to roll and decorated with shop-bought bought animal faces (no way was I going to attempt creating the faces myself...).

Finished cho-cho train. You see, it'll be all right on the night!

My sweet birthday girl.

Different hats for different days

2013-03-23T10:23:40+00:00

We all have them don't we?

Yesterday was thought provoking. I was interviewed and photographed inside my home and around Brighton for an interview that is going to appear in Craftseller Mag. Being interviewed is a touch unnerving, but very nice. I do ramble, even though I usually get a chance to 'plan' my responses I prefer to form answers on the fly. Caroline (the journalist) asked me some really great questions centering upon what it is like to be a craft fiend; who is a mum, who owns her own business and about the business challenges that I face and have faced. The interview made me think about the different roles that I perform/have performed in a given day, week and over the last few years. I also thought about how on a daily basis women (the jugglers that we are) perform so much magic which goes uncelebrated. It's fab to be known as the 'bag lady author person', but in my life behind the scenes (unsurprsingly) a lot of normal yawn-ery and family joy goes on - like it does for most everyone. I love it and I wouldn't change it.

I'm not one for rigging up my workroom with jugs of fresh cut garden peonies and half nibbled home baked cookies resting on dainty vintage tea plates (of course I wouldn't mind having that life) but I don't have the time and I don't feel that this kind of primping is necessasry in order for me to present the best side of me and what I do. I can design things and I can have rubbish hair (and I've being doing just that for years!)

So right now I am wearing my 'mum hat' and I'm blogging about what I am going to do later tonight whilst Mabel sleeps. Tomorrow a group of friends and I are celebrating our baby's 1st birthdays. We are all going to decorate a train carriage each and make the whole train at the party. I'm a touch nervous as cake decorating is not my forte, but for Mabel I will gladly give it my best shot!

I'll post the results of the above sugar overload soon - successful or not!

Baby you're One

2013-03-18T21:04:27+00:00

Happy 1st birthday my Darling Mabel,

the planets aligned, the God/s/spirits chose, coins landed the right way up, nature smiled at us...and it was you, you were the one. I am your amazed mother and I promise you will always find home in my arms, pride, joy and mirth in my eyes, and my lips will forever tell you how I love you and how precious you are to me.

We will not always see eye to eye and (as all strong women should) we will test each other/everything, but this will be just another of the many ways that we will grow to love and understand each other all the more - so my Baby bring it on. The laughs, the tears, the pictures, the many firsts, the fights, the questions, the delight, the funny faces, the drama, the wonder, the worry, the messiness, the pride, there is so much to look forward to...and I'll be there for you my darling, for all of it!

For giving me the most life-changing year of my life - you have my heart,

love Mummy X

Knitting & Stitching Show tickets winner!

2013-03-08T16:35:38+00:00

Thanks for telling us your current craft crush and taking part in the ticket draw.

We have a randomly selected winner!

So will Bek Oko who said:

"How to choose just one?! Apart from purses I've been making little needle felted people. Trying to make them as life-like as possible has been fun! Though I don't know what I'm going to do with my little clan yet; at the moment they are living amongst some wooden mushrooms in my living room.
Thanks for the chance to win some tickets. Would need a strict budget in a place like that me thinks!"

Step foward, email me your email address lisa[dot]lam@u-handbag.com and we'll get the tickets sent to you. :)

Thank you!

Win tickets to The Knitting & Stitching Show

2013-03-07T12:19:35+00:00

Yep it's the knitting & Stitching craft fiend's shopping event of the year...oh yes!

Win a pair of tickets for the show worth £30.00!!

Make It Yourself at The Spring K&S Show! 14th to 17th March

With over 150 companies offering up crafty wares there's plenty to break the bank with. Also on offer are various workshops and demos. Yours truly will be there on the Saturday at the F&W stand for most of the day Come over and say 'Hiya!"

How to enter:

All you need to do to enter the draw is: 'tell what is your current craft crush. What craft can you not get enough of at the moment?'

1 winner will win a pair of open tickets to the show
YOU ONLY HAVE A DAY TO ENTER! Winner will be drawn at around 4pm tomorrow.