By Judith on February 1, 2021 0 Comments (Leave comment)
Last Saturday afternoon I had my Denim Pouch Workshop, hosted via Zoom by Crafty Monkies.
16 ladies (some in different time zones!) got chopping and repurposing as they used their denim finds to create Denim Zippy Pouches.
The class was following my 9.5″ x 5.5″ samples, using the Quilt-As-You-Go technique to piece and quilt the denim onto interfacing, adding in those all important loops, seams and special features that are unique to denim.
We also learned how to insert a zipper with tabs to give a lovely finish to the pouches, a first for some of the ladies.
And here are a few of the finished pouches.
Aren’t they fab! And feedback from the ladies was that they definitely see more denim pouches and bags in their future!
I always get excited when I see repurposed denim projects. For fun I decided to create a collage of some of my own denim projects!
Lots of bags and pouches there – denim is the perfect hard wearing textile for creating these!
By Judith on July 21, 2020 2 Comments (Leave comment)
Firstly, apologies for forgetting to announce here the winner of my last giveaway (my bad)! The lucky winner was Michelle Green @elsie_and_alice and was announced on Instagram & Facebook. Thank you to everyone here who entered. Fingers crossed you will be luckier with my next giveaway.
Today is the end of week 3 of my Just Jude Designers Collaboration on Instagram.
This time the designers were making my Dotti Denim Pouch and I’m blown away by their makes.
Svetlana:
Kerry:
Stuart:
Lucy:
Aren’t they fab!
I love how each pouch reflects the creative personalities of the makers!! You can read/see more about each pouch by searching the hashtag #justjudecollaborates on Instagram.
And if you’d like to make your own Dotti Denim Pouch, you can purchase it here.
By Judith on April 6, 2020 2 Comments (Leave comment)
Hello everyone!
I hope you are all keeping safe and well during these strange days. With much more time available to us, I guess you are all making lots of headway with all your WIPs and UFOs!!!!! (wink, wink!)
With no classes to teach, I thought I’d have a go at teaching online!! With essential tech support from my daughter, we spent 6 days filming, editing, cringing, re-filming and editing some more to finally produce our first video tutorial!
It’s far from perfect and we still have lots to learn (not sure I’ll ever get used to seeing & hearing myself on video!), but we are really pleased overall and the initial feedback is positive.
So if you have lots of scraps you would like to turn into something practical and pretty, then our free tutorial might just be what you’re looking for!
Click on the pic and you’ll be taken to the tutorial on my Youtube Channel
These scrappy pouches can be made to any size, so you can cater for the scraps you have.
The strips are sewn down onto a foundation layer (either sew-in interlining, baking paper or wadding) and no matter the size of the pouch (or textile you use) the technique is the same.
I’ve made a cutesy pencil case size pouch ….
…. as well as medium sized project or toiletry pouches.
And then I went large with my denim scraps, making this extra-large pouch, perfect for a laptop, files or even a knitting project!!
The tutorial takes you step by step through making the strippy panels, creating zipper tabs, inserting the zipper and assembling and finishing the pouch.
And you also get the measurements for all the sizes shown here.
So with all this time on our hands, there’s really no excuse for not diminishing those scraps!
By Judith on May 17, 2019 2 Comments (Leave comment)
My youngest daughter requested a handmade gift for her friend’s 18th birthday.
Front
Back
So last bank holiday Monday, I had a happy afternoon ‘playing’ in my sewing room with my first love, denim!
Using only my smallest denim pieces, I used the ‘quilt as you go’ method to quilt the pieces directly onto some Pellon flex foam, leaving sections here and there for a little Boro style stitching!
I’m not a great hand stitcher, but I’m loving the current boro/kantha/sashiko stitching trend that is influencing the quilting community at the moment.
Originating from the Japanese ethos of ‘visible mending’ these stitches are meant to be seen, functional, and not necessarily perfect! Yes! My kind of hand stitching.
I always love working with denim, and completely fell in love with this little pouch as I discovered interesting seams, shades and textures among my scraps.
It was a sad and sweet moment handing over this pouch! Needless to say I didn’t even make a dent in my pile of scraps!
My appetite for making more ‘quilt as you go’ boro style denim projects is unabated, so I’ve decided to design a bag in the same style! #lovemyjob
By Judith on November 7, 2018 0 Comments (Leave comment)
Well the 1 year celebrations are over, so it’s back to class prep, pattern writing and sample making!
Some of you have availed of my online pattern shop discount code BIRTHDAY1. I hope you enjoy making the projects.
However, there were a few glitches with the discount code which I’m pleased to say are now fixed! Apologies, and thank you for your patience.
So if you didn’t manage to use the code first time around, I’m extending my discount offer, so please feel free! The code will expire this Saturday, 10th November.
And if you need a little tempting, let me show you some of my recently listed patterns!
By Judith on September 26, 2018 0 Comments (Leave comment)
I promised to check in again and tell you about my makes at Patchwork in the Peaks (though they pale into insignificance compared to the fabulous makes of my fellow sewers).
Not fully understanding the brief of the weekend, I arrived with no personal projects to work on! Doh!
However, Elita has a very healthy ‘scraps stack’ which she generously makes available to all at Peaks.
So with that in mind, I rustled up a sizeable ‘Quilt As You Go’ pouch.
I always find that other people’s scraps are much more interesting than my own, so it was fun rustling through the scrap boxes for this project.
Thank you to Margie for donating the yellow tassel!
One of the ‘games’ we played at the weekend was a ‘Roll the Dice Fat Quarter swap’.
It’s much too long winded for me to try and explain how it works, but the essence of the game is that you bring 3 fat quarters to the table and after much hilarity, competitive threats (of the lighthearted kind of course!!) and fast hand action, you end up with 3 different fat quarters!
One such fat quarter is the glorious yellow that I used for the lining of my pouch!
Aaaahhhhh! Sunshine in a pouch!
Following my Denim Applique Bag workshop, there was a nice little pile of offcuts and discarded denim bits.
So in keeping with the denim/upcycling theme, I made another zippy pouch (a girl can never have too many pouches, right?!).
A little ‘Aurifil’ decorative stitching and feature tabs, loops and labels add the perfect finishing touches.
Another of my ‘fat quarter swaps’ made it as the perfect pouch lining!
On Saturday evening we shared our ‘Secret Sister’ gifts (surprise, anonymous gifts left for each person throughout the weekend) and then Gina presented the ‘Mystery Make’.
This is a fun, quick make in keeping with the theme of the weekend. Several little jeans legs were made available with a finished sample of the cutest wee fabric bucket! So we set to it and in no time at all, a family of re-purposed fabric buckets appeared! (see pics in previous post)
Despite the flowers being upside down (!!) I’m going to use mine as a purposeful little thread catcher.
And last but not least, another rummage in the scraps box and my heart started to flutter as I discovered some adorable vintage vibe browns!
Now I appreciate brown is not a universally loved fabric colour, and there are some browns I just can’t do.
But on my bucket list of makes is a vintage brown quilt (I have a secret hoard of brown vintage fabrics in my loft!). So I grasped the nettle and started making log cabin blocks, with no other plan in mind than to enjoy the browns and worry about a design much later!
So considering I arrived at Peaks with no fabric or sewing equipment, I did pretty well don’t you think?
Unfortunately I don’t have a pattern written up yet for this project, but I’m currently working on a new Denim Pouch Bag, so stay tuned for new ways to upcycle your denim.
By Judith on January 11, 2017 5 Comments (Leave comment)
I hope you aren’t tired of seeing my denim pouches!
I was woefully late getting a birthday present to my friend, but now that she has it I can show it to you!
This one is a little different from my other denim pouches. I thought I would keep hexies as the dominant theme this time.
the back
My Sizzix cutting machine makes light work cutting through the denim. And because I enjoying EPP-ing hexies so much, there are more hexies on the back, with just a hint of Aurifil Wool thread featuring in the base (couldn’t resist)!
Sometimes denim can feel a little masculine, so I made sure to add some feminine touches with the floral lining and pink zip!
While this pouch has been made from recycled textiles, I haven’t even made a dent in my hoard!
I guess I’ll just have to think up a few more ways to use denim!
