my 'Pass It On' gifts

You can find out about The Pass it On Project here. You gift a couple of things to other bloggers, and they keep one and give the other to a friend. Then, they pass on the blogger gratitude by sending two gifts each, to any of their own blogger friends, and so it goes on.

The bloggers I chose, Danielle at Silver Pennies and Maureen at It's All Connected have received their gifts, so now I can reveal what I made.

It took me ages to come up with the idea. I kept thinking of framing beach junk, but I felt that I wanted to create something that could be used.

I was looking around my studio and was suddenly inspired by this.

A bag for twine that I bought in a friends shop, years ago.

I bought some balls of twine, an eyelet kit, some toggles and some fabric. It was called 'scrim', but I guess it's similar to burlap. Anyway, it was close to the original.

I looked in my trunk of material for some contrast fabric and found some blue silk (Danielle loves blue) and a piece of fabric with Spode's Blue Italian pattern printed on it (Maureen likes Willow pattern china). I used to sell Spode china years ago, and I must have had a piece to make a tablecloth.  

In the end I just used the blue and white fabric because it looked so effective.

I really liked the selvage, so I was able to use it on the front of the bag.

I cut out some pieces for the front, that are from the edging pattern of Blue Italian, not the scene.

I had to unpick the stitching of whatever had been made before. I frayed the edges, and just used the eyelets to hold them in place (also, the tighter weave of the cotton, would hopefully make the eyelets stronger).

Putting in eyelets is THE best fun. Using a heavy duty hammer is always a pleasure - lol - and I feel many more projects with eyelets coming up in the future !

The toggles I bought wouldn't actually go through the eyelets (clever me, huh !), and anyway, they were plastic so I discarded them. I couldn't find any tiny wooden toggles or even long beads to fit, so was struggling for a few days.

I had a lightbulb moment in a shop - why not use driftwood.

I had to break up a piece and sand the edges and then glue them onto the string.  The glue is a little bit visible, but it couldn't really be helped, and I think they look really cute.

The string is attached to the inside of the back of the bag. It is knotted at the top to make a loop for hanging, and then the other end is attached to the toggle, so that the bag sits neatly when hung.

You then put a ball of twine in the bag and feed the end through the other hole (I think the picture above is the one where I got hammer-happy and bashed the eyelet too much. Luckily I made 5 bags, for just such an eventuality !).

So, thanks once again to Natalie  for passing on some wonderful gifts to me, which you can read about here. And also to Karah at The Space Between for the original idea. I'm now looking forward to seeing what Maureen and Danielle come up with !

probably linking up with some parties soon !

linking up with

Motivate me Monday @ Keeping it Simple

Take-a-look-Tuesday @ Sugar Bee Crafts

Cowgirl Up @ The Farmhouse Porch

Wow Us Wednesdays @ Savvy Southern Style

Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

Link Party Thursday @ Somewhat Simple

Inspiration Friday @ At the Picket Fence

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Air Your Laundry (Friday Textile Party) @ Freckled Laundry

Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
Showoff Saturday @ Nutmeg Place

Sunday's Best @ My 1929 Charmer

Sunday Showcase Party @ Under The Table and Dreaming