Saturday 22 September 2012

As featured in Sewing World magazine!

It's been such an exciting week at Handbags by Helen HQ. I think I mentioned a while ago that the Lovely Fiona from the Sewing World asked if she could feature one of my bags. Well, here's the finished article......

Sewing World Feature October 2012
It was so lovely of her to include my bag, especially since the other items are so beautiful, and expertly photographed. It will be interesting to follow what happens on google analytics (if I can ever work out what half of it means!) - I'm hoping it will get me a few more fans just in time for Christmas shopping.

As a little reward to myself I decided to splurge out on this amazing fabric.

Teal and pink butterfly fabric

Isn't it beautiful? I'm contemplating what to make with it but I have three metres, so plenty to play around with. I definitely feel it's time that HbyH actually owned a bag of her own!

My other purchase has been one of these. It only arrived yesterday so I'm still tinkering around. It's quite large - large enough for my bigger bags and arrived in an incredibly small bag! I had to get a friend, who has two small children (who have a play tent) to show me how to get it back into the bag.
I'm not sure I've quite got the hang of my portable photographic studio yet but I did take a couple of photos of some work in progress (I clearly need to work out how to photoshop the background so you can't see the seams in the tent).
Handmade bag, Handmade by Handbags Helen
Handmade bag, Handmade by Handbags Helen
Add caption
I'm heading over to Handmade Monday now to see what everyone else has been up to. It would be lovely if you could call in to and leave them some comments too. 


30 comments:

  1. Congratulations on having your bag featured in Sewing World magazine. I have to say that bag is one of my favourites the fabric is lovely. It took my a minute to figure out what you light box was. Hope you have fun playing around with it. Have a lovely weekend.
    Ali x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Helen well done on the feature in Sewing World! Hope some sales result from it. I have heard about these light boxes - are they expensive? Do they come in various sizes? Where can you purchase them? Sorry about all the questions!! Lovely bag btw! I enjoy doing patchwork but never seem to get the time it needs! Nice blog post. Edwina

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations on being in the magazine, hopefully it should get your name to a much wider audience :)
    I have wondered about getting one of those portable studios - photographing bags always causes me problems. I did use a website for taking out backgrounds but can't remember it's name at the moment!
    (Struggling to prove I'm not a robot :( will give it one more go)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well done on the Sewing World feature - every mention helps, and you never know who is reading - it's surprising how even one customer can spread the word quite efficiently! The bags look lovely - enjoy the lightbox! x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations on the feature! The bag looks great.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well done on getting a bag published. I have the light tent it is brilliant, highly recommend, small but perfectly formed.

    The fabric is beautiful and says oriental to me

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congratulations on being featured in Sewing World - its a lovely and well-deserved compliment. Hope you have a good week.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Another published crafter in our midst. A well deserved pat on the back. Those tent things seem to have a life of their own, dont't they!?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful bags as always and well done for getting featured in the magazine. I shall look forward to seeing how you get on with your photo tent. I have wondered about purchasing one of these but never actually got around to it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. congratulations on the feature! your bag looks super :)

    i'm intrigued by your new photo tent... it certainly seems to create the right type of light as your bags look great in the pics!

    re your comment on my post this week thank you for offering to share my 'support British designer makers' links page! There are no links on the page yet so not much to see but the logo is mine so you are welcome to share away :) If you leave a link to my HM post then people will know that they can contact me about having their site added... speaking of which, i'd love to pop a link to your lovely site on there, if you're interested just email me a picture you'd like me to use :) x

    ReplyDelete
  11. Congrats on being featured in the magazine - so well deserved, your bags are lovely.

    I've not seen a light box before, didn't know what it was at first!

    Love that new fabric, very beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your bag fits in brilliantly and I agree that it is a very well deserved compliment. I think that you definitely deserve a bag for yourself. Your comment about the tent made me laugh. My OH cannot get his head around them at all!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Congratulations on your lovely feature and snap we have the same light tent, it does take some practice getting right but once you do the results are worth it, I've been using the free Picasa 3 photo editor to edit the photos once they are done but I have to admit with the light tent not much editing needs doing :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Well done you. I dream of the day I get something featured in a magazine - it's a long time off I fear. The bags are beautiful and the fabric is so pretty. x

    ReplyDelete
  15. Congrats on your feature!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Looking forward to seeing what you create with that gorgeous fabric Helen....Congrats on getting you work featured!! xx

    ReplyDelete
  17. I saw your new fabric over on facebook and think it is gorgeous. As for google analytics - I have no idea about it at all! Well done on being published too

    ReplyDelete
  18. Congratulations on your publication.The bag looks brilliant!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Congrats on your handbag being featured, You must be thrilled!
    The portable photographic tent was intriguing, but what a great idea. Looking forward to seeing what you do with your gorgeous fabric purchase !

    Wendy

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow, well done on getting featured in a magazine, that's amazing :-) Lovely new fabric too, looking forward to seeing what you make with it.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Congratulations on having your lovely bag featured in Sewing World magazine, it should expose you to lots of potential customers, so hopefully you'll see your business really take off.
    I'd like to think that one day maybe one of my bags will be featured in a magazine...I live in hope ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  22. well done on your bag being featured. it's so rewarding and satisfactory.
    i hope you will enjoy your lightbox - it looks good and v. professional. ive got one but mine is simple and it doesnt have stitches at the back. you will need to edit photos in one of the photo editing programs - maybe Gimp or PhotoScape or Photoshop.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Congratulations on being published in the magazine. You picked a beautiful fabric for your reward. I love the colourful butterflies on it.

    I've got one of those light tents too but I gave up tring to put it back into the bag. Creases are a huge problem with the backdrops. I have to iron them for ages on a low heat to get most of the creases out. If you can, store the backdrops flat so they don't get creased again.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Love the new fabric - that is going to a beautiful bag. The photography tent looks like a challenge, but your first photos are great - that bag is stunning too :-)

    Alison (a confirmed bag-aholic!)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thanks for the comment on my blog.

    Congratulations on getting featured in Sewing World, hope you get lots of orders x.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Congratulation on being published in a magazine ! It's funny, but I was only last week looking for the same light studio, but instead decided to upgrade my camera ! Definitelly the more expensive option, but I have no regrets ! Look forward to see more of your pictures - perhaps it will persuate me to buy the tent as well.

    ReplyDelete
  27. You are a craft star now! As always, I love the shape of your bags and the combination of colours and fabrics.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Wow, I've never heard of a portable photography studio, how exciting! Congrats on the feature, and that fabric is indeed very pretty :) Hx

    ReplyDelete
  29. Hi Helen, Thanks for featuring me on your blog.

    The bags you make are Beautiful...Sewing World magazine! congratulations, very exciting. M x :)

    ReplyDelete