Halloween Crafting for Vany - Part 1

So here's another post of some stuff I actually made ages ago! If you guys follow my blog regularly you will know that each year my friend Vany and I do a craft swap and  I usually share what I've made. Vany wasn't able to play along this year (but its ok, she's coming to visit in February!) and I still haven't finished all of the stuff I wanted to make for her (I'm still two days short) but I thought I would share what I  did make - even if we didn't have it as together this year as we have other years.

The first thing I made Vany was a cross stitch - I had a design in mind to make for Vany, it was one of Rich's designs and as soon as he finished it up I knew it was perfect for a Halloween swap! The pattern I chose is available in Rich's esty store if you're interested.

Here it is off the hoop, I really love stitching patterns like this, you feel like you have quickly achieved a lot by stitching up one motif at a time - I think I stitched quite a few of the motifs in one night, which makes for satisfying stitching.

Here's a bit of a close up, the eyeball is probably my favourite part of the design.

The second thing I wanted to share with you today is the bag I made for Vany, its a satchel style bag that I've made before - see here and here. I didn't make too many changes from the previous times I made the bag, however, this time I used some amazing fabric that I had been "saving" (all people who sew do that right?).

Here's a wee bit of an action shot in the making (sadly I didn't take too many) the fabric was incredible (like I already said) it was pretty much Hammer Horror fabric and I loved it SO MUCH. But I only had a metre, not really enough for dressmaking, but plenty for a bag. This time I lined the inside with black cotton that was a bit of a pain to work with (I don't know why, its black cotton) but I got there in the end.

For the earlier versions of this bag I had to rely on a door handle, but this time around I had the help of an actual model (thanks Rich). I really did enjoy making all of these bags and would like to make more in the future, but I always get put off as it seems so difficult to get the hardware for bag making - maybe I should just stop overthinking it and actually see what I can find and make more bags.

It probably seems a bit out of place to be blogging about Halloween stuff now, but in my world every day is Halloween and I really loved making this stuff so I wanted to share!

Hope everyone's countdown to Christmas is going well!