I bought more fabric to add to the fabric hoard.  Just waiting for it to arrive as it should be here today with next day delivery.

One is a duck egg blue with hydrangeas on it and the other is another floral in pomegranate colour, both are Japanese fabrics purchased from U-Handbag.

What am I going to do with both fabrics?

Haven’t a clue but as usual with fabric hoarding, I just had to have it.  I’m be closer to a decision once I see the fabric “in person”.

Of course, now as I type this I am wondering if I can squeeze in a trip to Mandors to see what they might have in stock for next season or possibly anything they are selling off cheap.  It’s an addiction I tell ya, completely beyond my control.

Lisa’s wonderful bag making book has been released early or at least is in stock on amazon earlier than the stated publication date so of course I had to order a copy as soon as I saw it yesterday – before they realised their mistake!

It arrived this morning with the postman, and it’s everything I hoped for and more.  You can find my review on amazon, or if you’re lazy, just read it below:

You might question how a book of only 160 pages can call itself a “bible” but don’t, because that’s exactly what it is!
It has everything you need to know in order to make your own bags from the patterns included in the book and to understand how to put your own ideas together to create your own bags should you feel inspired.  I’ve been waiting (not so patiently) for this book ever since Lisa Lam announced on her website that it was happening, and as soon as I saw it listed on Amazon, I took full advantage of the “look inside this book” feature to see exactly what was in it, so I knew what I was getting.  Having purchased some of Lisa’s bag making kits and PDF patterns previously I was concerned that there might be some overlap/duplication with the patterns included in this book but I am happy to say that all 8 of the bag patterns in the book are new and not available in any of the kits or PDF patterns available from her shop.  In other words 8 brand new designs for some fantastic looking bags are contained within this compact bible of a book.
As I had already checked out some of the images, I knew which ones I couldn’t wait to make as soon as my copy arrived, and as soon as the book was showing as being in stock I ordered it.  In particular, I can’t wait to get started on the Oversized Fashionista, the Organised Office, and the Great Getaway bags, but all the bags look fantastic.  There are plenty of photos of the bags and photos of key stages and techniques, as well as photos of basic equipment and fabric swatches to ensure you can identify everything you need when you go shopping for them.  Plus full size patterns for all eight bags in good strong paper and not tissue paper, which let’s face it is a bit of pain to use and doesn’t last very long, so kudos to Lisa for giving us patterns that will last!
I’ve seen a lot of bag making books before, bought a few, decided against a few, but this one is definitely a winner and one that I will keep on my sewing table as a handy reference in between all that bag making.
Final comments:  It’s a great book, one of the best sewing books I’ve seen in a while and definitely of the same high quality that I’m used to as a U-Handbag customer and U-Handblog visitor.  If you have seen U-Handblog’s tutorials then you’ll know what I mean.  If you haven’t then please visit immediately after purchasing this book and you’ll see the wealth of information available there as well as becoming hooked on bag making and Lisa’s very friendly style of blogging.  The U-Handbag shop has everything you need to make your own fantastic and unique handbags like the ones included in this book, and it’s been a fantastic resource for me over the past few years as she sells some unique bits and pieces to make your bags truly special.  Thanks Lisa!

Review

Buy the book:

Behold, Japanese fabric I bought yesterday and received today from U-Handbag:

And fabric I want but is currently out of stock.

This is a strange one for me as I generally wouldn’t normally like this kind of thing but I find that I actually do.  It can only be fabric lust strikes again.

Episode two – design an outfit to represent a Marie Claire woman.  Prize would be your design on a model on a billboard in Times Square.  Um yeah, I guess some people don’t read Marie Claire because those outfits were scary – scary bad.  I quite liked Valerie’s zip up the front red dress and I think that would have photographed very well and looked great on the billboard but the judges went with Gretchen’s weirdo jumpsuit thing which to me did not look “fashion forward” but more retro 1980s.  Anyhoo, she won, and two people went home – Jason of the clockwork-orange-I’m going-to-psych-everyone-out-by-wearing-this-thing-bowler-hat and Nicholas who really has no idea and had a good cry, poor love.  Both outfits were awful, Nicholas with a backless blouse and a “day” cape to cover the gap, and Jason with his “infinity 8″ concept dress tastefully held together with safety pins.  Mmmm nothing says Marie Claire like safety pins and shiny capes boys!

Pretty

Pretty awful

oooooh it’s back!  I get so excited when this show is on and so inspired to run upstairs and do some creating of my own or at least some sewing.  Generally though, I end up watching the show and then by the time it’s finished there’s no time for me to do anything or I just lose my momentum.

Back in New York again at Parsons, and back in the Atlas apartments, the rag tag bunch of misfit designers are all raring to go and show what they can do.  There were 17 of them in this first episode and Heidi dropped the bombshell that this was actually still part of the audition, so one unfortunate got to straight back home again without ever unpacking or seeing the funky apartments.  I really felt for one of the contestants – Carlos Casanova (call me Casanova) who stupidly pulled his $1000 Dolce and Gabbana pants out of his suitcase for the first challenge, only to discover that he had to give them to someone else to CUT UP and make into something else – yikes!  Maybe that’s why they didn’t send him home on the first challenge – they felt sorry for his loss – as the creation he presented was seriously lacking in taste and skin coverage.

All in all, they were all pretty average but then what do you expect for something knocked up in 5 hours using something from someone else’s suitcase! The winner was not memorable – I can’t even remember who or what won at this point – so let’s move on.

Heidi has a bit of a dodgy haircut, Nina Garcia showed off her bilingual skills when she had to translate a question Heidi asked Casanova, and Tim Gunn as always is the star of the show – go Tim!

Roll on episode two and some serious sewing.

I  feel the need to say that I am extremely pissed off right now and I feel like punching something or someone really hard.  Of course I imagine this feeling will fade quite soon and I will take my revenge in a non-violent way but at the moment I am feeling a little aaarrggggrrhhhhhhh.

And also, just to make matters worse, I upgraded my blog software and it’s hellish.  WTF?

*head explodes*

Finally added the Crafty Book Addicts community on LJ.  You may not be aware of how much I like to plan things, but I really like to plan things.  So instead of planning, I decided just to create it now (instead of sleeping) and worry about the fine print later.  that’s what happens when I don’t go to bed at a decent time!  So if you are a Book Addict (ie person who loves books) and a crafty one at that, then please go join up.  You must also be a member of the Book Addicts Book Group since we are a community for Book Addicts (and there would be no point if you weren’t now would there) and you must be crafty.  See the community for more info.

Zazzle has *finally* sorted out their email notification system and I got 267 emails from them today :p  Oh joy!  Every email I should have had since it “broke” arrived in my inbox this morning, and they just keep coming, so quite possibly it’s still not working quite right, as I know for a fact I have not had 32 new orders today lol but they keep insisting I’ve “just made a sale” *head spins*  Anyway, nice to see some emails instead of nothing.  Now I don’t have to keep checking manually to see if anyone has bought anything, or commented or “joined my fan club”.

Christmas mail delays are irritating me no end.  I am waiting for presents I ordered online to arrive in time for me to post them elsewhere, and I am (and this is a BIG worry) waiting for craft supplies to arrive in time for me to make other presents *chews lip*

Speaking of Christmas, I currently have negative money, and I found out today that I might also not have any heating for Christmas.  It is beginning to sound a bit like a Dickens novel, but I rang the oil company today and due the the “Christmas rush” they might not be able to get to me by Christmas!  Who’d have thought there would be a Christmas oil rush, it’s not exactly like a gold rush I suppose *strokes chin*  Anyway, should there be no heating, then I may be offline due to it being too damn cold to type, or sew or knit or read books.  I will be hibernating or perhaps moving me and the kitties in with the rele’s.