Hi Everyone

Welcome to Week 3 of Project 52!! This week I really wanted to learn how to do a zipper. For some reason I have been really afraid to try doing a zip. They were the unknown…. they required a different foot…. they were not just easy, straight, flat quilting lines… In other words – they challenged my nice little comfort zone…  This is the precise reason that I want to try doing something new for each of my own Projects for Project 52 – to challenge these irrational fears. Because, as I quickly found out, the fear of zippers is really VERY irrational – they are pretty super dooper easy LOL…

So to conquer my fear I set myself the challenge of making a little lined purse, picked out my absolute favourite fabric of the moment (meadowsweet strawberries, by Sandi Henderson), you tubed a tutorial, and away I went… It turned out ok. It was too small for what I was hoping (I don’t think I followed the tutorial size… pays to follow the instructions hey)- but it was super duper cute…

…The catch….
it turns out that the fabric was Hannah’s absolute favourite as well. After taking it off her a number of times (causing many floods of tears) I decided that since it was too small for what I wanted it for anyway I might as well give in to a silly battle and let her have it. She has carted it around with her all week, putting treasure after treasure in it (and getting continually frustrated that the zip wouldn’t close because she had too many treasure in it I might add). Today when I went to photograph it for this post – do you think I could find it?! Typicall!!!! It has been stashed somewhere – is probably inside one of Hannah’s handbags. She is asleep so I didn’t want to disturb her by fossicking too much.

So unfortunately you will just have to use your imagination for now LOL… When it turns up I will post it to our Flickr group.

But fear not… I do have some other photos. It was my sister-in-law-to-be’s birthday last week. Stuck for any present ideas, I decided to make her a handbag and matching little lined purse – using the same tutorial as my first size but increasing the size a bit to be more versatile…

I made the handbag first…

Then here is the little matching (zippered) purse:

The striped fabric is the same fabric that lines the handbag. Cute hey.

So do I fess up and tell you that it was a complete accident totally planned that the stripes ended up on the outside of the purse? Hmmm…. Despite it not being the original plan, I’m so pleased I made that happy accident, as I think they look super cute together as opposites don’t you? Just added a little butterfly applique to make it a bit more interesting…

While I was making the handbag I also learnt a second new skill, which I was planning to learn in a different Project 52 – how to make a button hole…. What a happy bonus!!  So there you go, two irrational fears happily conquered this week!!

How did you guys get on? Don’t forget to upload your photos to the Flickr group if you have an account & also go and encourage everyone about their week 3 projects.
It’s nice to have them in a central place so that we can see what everybody is getting up to and be inspired 😀

I have a sneeking suspicion that my next weeks project will involve a lot of Sublimation. If you don’t know what that is… don’t worry – you soon will 😀

Have a great week!!