Fired up by the Folksy Challenge!

You know what it's like....you head towards Christmas, frantically making things to sell and give away as gifts.  Busy, busy! And then there's that long break between Christmas and New Year. Maybe it's just me, but I find it hard to get going again after such a long break. That's where the Folksy Challenge came in. It was MerryBerry who started it all off and suggested that each month we had a themed challenge to make something. So here's a summary of progress so far for this weeks Handmade Monday..... 

JANUARY

THEME: St Andrew and Scotland

I didn't want to be too conventional but I headed for the obvious - tartan. I looked everywhere but couldn't find a fabric I really liked, and I knew I wanted to do something a bit brighter and more cheery. I'd had the green tweed style fabric sitting around for a while, but never quite knew what to do with it. In the end I decided it had enough of a Scottish influence for me to turn it into my January bag.

FEBRUARY

THEME: St David and Wales

I instantly knew I wanted to do something in daffodil yellow. I'd also been wanting to use hopsack fabric for a while. So when I came across this fabric on good old e-bay I didn't hesitate to buy it. This was probably one of my most challenging bags so far and I did follow a pattern by NapKitten. But I learnt lots and was really pleased with the outcome.

And just to help finish it off I added a daffodil beaded charm (i was definitely outside my comfort zone with beads - jewellery making is not as easy as all you jewellery makers out there make it look!).

MARCH

THEME: St Patrick and Ireland

I have to confess that I wasn't really looking forward to this challenge. I'm not a big fan of green! But then I thought, instead of a handbag, I'd try and make my first clutch. Once that was decided it was easy to choose the green velvet. This is definitely a project i wouldn't have done without the Folksy challenge to inspire me.

You can see see all the other inspired entries on Pinterest here. Head over to the Folksy Forum if you fancy joining us next month - have you guessed what the theme is yet???

A huge thanks to MerryBerry for kicking this off and helping to motivate me to start making again after Christmas.