Nautical Niceties

First of all, thank you to everyone who commented on my last post, whether to offer advice or sympathy.  The general consensus seems to be that the whole pattern is too big for me!  Unfortunately Style Arc patterns come as individual sizes, so I shall have to do some grading before I can proceed.  I'll keep you updated on my progress. 

Tuesday was not a good crafting day for me, as after the jacket disaster I discovered the sleeve of a cardigan I'm knitting was too tight, so I had to rip out all 94 rows I'd done!

As you can imagine I was feeling slightly demoralised, so it was lovely to get home from work yesterday, to a big parcel all the way from Spain. 

It was my gift from Rosy of SewingAdicta, who I was paired with in House of Pinheiro's International Craft Swap.

I'd already seen on Rosy's blog what she was sending me, so I was very excited to see the gorgeous goodies in real life.  And gorgeous they are!


Rosy has been incredibly generous.  The brief was to make an item of your choice on a nautical theme, or using the colours red, white and blue, and to include a small gift to the value of £3.00.

Well, Rosy has made me this gorgeous zipped purse.  She's even handpainted the anchor motif herself! 




 
In addition to this, Rosy sent me 3 balls of cotton yarn, in navy, white and red and some red, white and blue striped jersey fabric.  I'm not sure yet what I'm going to make with the yarn, but I'm pretty sure I'll make the jersey into a top.
 
Thank you Rosy, your gift was amazingly kind and generous.
 
Now, I expect you'd like to see what I made Rosy.
 
I also made a bag/purse, using this tutorial.  I went for the red, white and blue theme and used red cotton for the outside and a print featuring all things British on the inside.
 
 


 
For the additional gift I send Rosy a pretty necklace with a vintage looking flower pendant on it.  Unfortunately I forgot to photograph that!
 
It was great to take part in the swap organised by Rachel, and I've discovered several new and exciting blogs as a result.
 



14 comments

  1. I am eternally grateful to you for all the love you put into making my gift ... I'm happy you like my job ... looking forward to see how you use that fabric ...

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  2. I do empathasise with your situation - it's so frustrating when these sort of things happen. Especially the knitting capping it all off. Glad you had a nice surprise with this parcel.

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    1. Yes, the knitting was the last straw! Luckily, as it was Tuesday, I had the Great British Sewing Bee on TV to cheer me up.

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  3. I love what you made for Rosy and you got a beautiful parcel too ... I will showcase that on the blog soon x

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    1. Thanks for organising this Rachel, it was great fun to participate.

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  4. What lovely gifts! I can well imagine that was a nice pick-me-up after all your recent troubles!

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    1. Yes, it was. Particularly as I'd spent nearly 6 hours in the car yesterday, driving to and from a meeting!

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  5. What a fun swap.. Love the purses and the beautiful fabric.. Happy sewing.. and so sorry for the trouble with your cardigan..

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    1. It was fun! Thank you for the sympathy over my cardigan! I started again last night, and am nearly back up to where I was before I had to rip it out.

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  6. What lovely swap gifts, you both went to so much trouble. So sorry to hear about your knitting - I would weep, 90+ rows would take me forever!

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    1. Jacq, I once finished knitting a cardigan, tried it on and immediately started ripping it out! I've learnt that if I'm not happy with something it won't get worn so I might as well undo it and correct what I'm not happy with, however long it takes.

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  7. What absolutely gorgeous gifts!! You two were a really good match-up :)

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    1. Yes, I can't believe how well Rachel did matching us up!

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