Hello lovelies,

Today I'm going to share some of the things that have inspired me lately and I am hoping you will tell me what you think of this kind of post and also share the ideas/projects/people/movies/music/ that inspired you lately!

Recycling 

We'll start with this idea from the A Beautiful Mess blog: turning a placemat into a purse. Emma loved this placemat but she was never using it, so she made her own leather straps out of some scrap leather (how brave!), added a snap closure and two rectangles at the side and there you go, a new handbag!

Tiny quilts 

Take a look at this refreshing mini-quilt piecing idea from Mollie at Wild Olive. How cute are these house-shaped pieces? I also like the idea of creating a mini-quilt; perfect for beginners or for sewists who get bored easily by a project. You all know my ineptitude in quilting, so I really admire those who have these skills!

Sewing with oilcloth

Have you ever worked on a sewing project with oilcloth? Oilcloth can be a great choice for making beach bags, toiletry pouches, even clutches. Lisa Lam has some great tips about sewing with oilcloth on her blog. For example, did you know that in the absence of a walking foot you could use baby powder (only if it's an emergency, please!) or stick some masking tape on your normal foot to make it more slippery?

The oilcloth pouches in the photo above are shared by storebukkebruse on flickr with CC BY 2.0.

Anna from Hello Handbag wrote a post this week about her bag in a bag, a little pouch with all her daily tote-around, to make it easier to switch handbags. No more "I forgot that card/book/key in the other bag", plus it's a great pretext to sew a pretty pouch. And if you're feeling fancy, you could make your Sunburst clutch into a daily essentials-keeper. The great advantage: you could use that fabric you absolutely love but wouldn't necessarily want to be seen wearing :)

Sewing for pets

Do you have pets? Then surely they deserve a chance to be as stylish as they can. A cool weekend project by Rachel from Smile and Wave is this washable dog bed cover! Isn't it cute? Apart from being easy to wash and made in a beautiful fabric, I like the constrasting, yellow ties!



What about you? What has inspired you recently? Do you ever sew anything for pets?
Do you keep tiny bits of fabric or do you throw anything you don't need away (if so, please let us know how you do it!)?