Charity Make - Zipped Box Style Make Up Bag

If you're in the UK, you have probably seen the posters and adverts for the Macmillan Big Coffee Morning. It's a great cause and last year the coffee mornings raised £20,532,000 which can all be put towards helping people, and their loved ones, through cancer.

I was lucky enough to be invited to one this year that a friend and her neighbour were holding as a joint venture. This was a great idea, as it meant more numbers, a shared workload and the opportunity to meet and have fun with new people. The 'big day' as it were, was officially the 26th September, but this one, and many others around the country, had been pushed to the 28th. A Saturday morning meant that more people were able to attend.

As well as donating for your cup of tea/coffee and cake, there were various guessing games to play, through posters supplied in the Coffee Morning Kit and a raffle. As I was travelling by train, taking a Victoria sponge or a batch of delicious (hopefully!) cupcakes didn't seem the best option - and when the train pulled in to the station already absolutely packed to the rafters, the decision was proved to have been the right one. It would have been cupcake carnage. Instead I had decided to put my effort into a prize for the raffle. I pondered on what would be a good thing to take. As it was going to be mostly women, and bearing in mind the festive season is already being hailed in supermarkets across the country (something I wish we could legally change to ensure no hint of Christmas is allowed before November at least), I thought that perhaps a make up bag might be just the ticket.

I had some Makower fabric in cream called 'Boutique Accessories' that I thought would be perfect, covered as it is in little drawings of handbags, shoes, etc. (I tried to find a link to this for you, but because it's been in my stash a little while now, it seems that it's no longer sold). I also wanted it to be in a boxed style, rather than just flat. I don't know about you but I always find it much easier to find things in my own box shaped make up bag than I did in a previous 'flat' one.  Of course, as is always the way, nothing went to plan and I ended up poorly for the best part of last week.

Friday came and I still had no gift to take for the raffle. This is when Melanie at I Heart Stitiching came to the rescue. Without the time to spend rummaging through my patterns, I did a quick search on You Tube and found her channel. Melanie's box pouch tutorial is one of the best I've seen. She makes it really easy to see how to do things, gives you the measurements you need and just makes the whole thing seem less intimidating, especially if you are a) a beginner or b) under the weather - or even both.

This is how mine turned out:

 

 

 

 

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, especially for a first attempt. I have pretty high standards, especially when it comes to gifts so things going to plan with it meant that I avoided the last minute dash to the shops to find a raffle prize to take!

 

I deliberately went with a contrasting colour for the zip as I felt it added a little bit of zing to the project but you could of course have one that matched the base colour of the fabric.

 

The bag was quite fun to make and came together quite easily. The longest part was cutting it out I think. I probably lost a bit of time changing feet on my machine, not that they take that long, but I did change back and forth between the walking foot and the overedge foot a certain amount. Luckily even that doesn't take too long on my Janome machine  I previously had a Toyota which was a nice little machine but the walking foot was quite fiddly to change so I was very pleasantly surprised when I first changed to a walking foot on the DSK.

 

If I make another one of these, I will probably match the thread to the lining fabric (sorry, no pics of the inside on this one as hubby took them for me whilst I got tea ready and I didn't specify an 'interior shot'). In this one the lining is pink and the stitching is cream, to match the base colour of the exterior fabric. My brain was still a bit fuzzy from being under the weather and once I realised, I made the decision to carry on. I actually quite like that the stitching contrasts inside as it's neat and makes it a little quirky. I'd match the next one just to see which look I prefer most.

 

Hopefully the lady who picked my bag as her prize enjoys using it as much as I enjoyed making it, fuzzy brain and all!

 

Did you go to any of the Big Coffee Mornings? Did you make or take anything - I'd love to hear so do leave me a comment below!

 

Happy Crafting!

 

 

Love, Maxi