I'm really surprised it hasn't happened before, because my work table is just not big enough...I was working up a new design for a bucket bag. I'd had a busy day at work as my colleague was on leave and my back-up staff member had to stay at home with her sick child, so maybe I shouldn't have been in the Sewing Room at all but relaxing with my feet up!
I'd already made my pattern pieces at the weekend and was keen to start cutting out and see how it would all fit together. I'd got some lovely blue hessian and a piece of William Morris Chrysanthemum fabric in indigo. I chose the thread carefully to get a good match and found a lovely leather handle that would make it really classy!
All was going well-I'd sewn the front pieces together, then the back, pressed them carefully and top-stitched along the hessian to give it a nice finish. I laid the two pieces on the table and reached for the roll of wadding. Now where to put it to cut a piece off? Yes, you can see what's going to happen now, can't you? I placed it on top of my fabric pieces. I pulled one of them out from underneath to measure how much wadding to cut off and then pulled my shears out of the sundae glass they live in (!) and started to slice through the  wadding. I then noticed some resistance, but it was too late, I had already snipped a three inch slit into the bag back that I'd forgotten to remove from underneath the wadding. I'm not one to swear but I wasn't best pleased, to put it mildly. It was beyond redemption. I momentarily considered making a narrower bag, but the proportions would be completely wrong so there was nothing for it. I had to painstakingly unpick my work squinting under my magnifier, as the thread of course, was such an exact colour match to the fabric that I couldn't see it! So, first the top stitching, then the seams. I cut a new piece of WM fabric and started all over again!
Lesson learnt.
 

I'm pleased with the finished bag and I love the lining fabric (Stephanie Thannhauser Annali Produced by: Dashwood Studio). Not sure but, I think I might keep this one! The last bag I made for myself was for my trip to San Francisco and is nearly two years old now, so I think I'm due a new one! Keep your eye on Etsy tho', as I might change my mind-that's one advantage of being the Maker!

One of my best customers has ordered three black evening bags as Christmas presents. It's just as well I completed my William Morris order in good time!
A while ago I acquired (for 'acquired' read 'won on Ebay'!) a 'job lot' of lovely italian woven fabric samples - not sure what they were originally designed for...possibly clothing - but in shades of neutral colours and black. I can just squeeze a little bag out of the smaller pieces and with a little careful beading and silk linings, they look quite special.

The last fabric piece really needed a different treatment. They're all pretty busy fabrics but this one didn't look right with beading-it was all too much, so it became a simple clutch bag using the same design as the WM clutches I had made. Finished with just a vintage glass button it looks simply elegant and elegantly simple!
Let's hope the ladies they are destined for have some stylish LBD's to go with them!

These measure nine by five and a half inches and make a lovely cosmetic purse, pencil case or whatever you wish to fill them with...? Superb little Christmas presents available from the William Morris gallery from November.
So finally I've come to the end of this marathon make! Its been a real joy choosing which fabrics to use and seeing how stunning the items can look, made in these beautiful fabric designs! Delivery next week to the William Morris Gallery for their Christmas shop. Hope they sell well!