These Tote Bags are not only useful but really easy to make too! For a neat and professional finish we've used french seams, these might sound complicated but they're actually really straightforward.

You will need:

• 50cm of a medium-weight fabric, for ours we used Robert Kaufman's Railroad Denim, Nani Iro for Kokka's Water Window and Echino's Samber in Natural
• 25mm Cotton Webbing Tape, we've used a 100cm length, cut in half to create 2 X 50cm lengths
• Matching Cotton Thread, we've used Organic Cotton Thread in Beige
• Dressmakers Scissors
• Tape Measure
• Sewing Pins
• Sewing Gauge (not essential, but it makes turning a hem so much easier and quicker!)
• Bamboo Point Turner

To Make:

Stitch the two sides and the base together with a 1cm seam allowance.

Trim the seam to 3mm. Press the fabric with the seam allowance to one side.

Next turn your bag out so that the wrong side is now on the outside. Press on the wrong side to ensure that the seam is flat.

Then pin the layers together along the three pressed edges and stitch with a 5mm seam allowance. And there you have it, that's all there is to sewing a french seam!

Next press the seams.

For the top edge of the bag, turn a 2cm hem, still on the wrong side of the bag, as above, and press.

Then turn the hem again, this time by 2.5cm pinning as you go. Press again. Insert the webbing handles 10.5cm in from the side seams, taking care to ensure that the straps aren't twisted.

We're got a busy few months ahead of us and are really looking forward to meeting our lovely customers in person at the various events that we'll be taking part in during the run up to Christmas! We're also doing quite a lot locally to us, in the south, so worth liking our page on Facebook to see details of those events as they crop up.

Thread... a festival of textiles

We're thrilled to have a stand at this years "Thread Festival at Farnham Maltings, Surrey. The show's on for two days on Friday 25th September from 12noon to 6pm; and Saturday 26th September, from 10am to 5pm.

At this event you'll find lots of small businesses selling artisan and designer fabrics, haberdashery and all things 'sewing' alongside artists and textile artists selling handcrafted textiles. There are also a number of workshops taking place too.

Tickets are cheaper if you book in advance, to do so simply click on the image above.

Selvedge Winter Fair

We really enjoyed exhibiting at the Selvedge Spring Fair in Stroud earlier this year, so much so, that we couldn't resist signing up to exhibit at their Winter Fair in London this December on Thursday 3rd from 11am to 6pm & Friday 4th from 10am to 5pm.

Selvedge have a selected over a hundred designers and small companies to bring you a mix of contemporary and vintage haberdashery, handcrafted textiles and gifts. Again, tickets are cheaper if you by them in advance, simply click on the image above to take you through to their website.

We'll be at both of these events with a selection of our lovely Merchant & Mills sewing accessories, patterns, and gift items, sewing and stitch kits including Heather Lins Stitch Calendars, Kiriki, Nancy Nicholson, What Delilah Did and other gifts.

To make room for our new Autumn collection of fabrics we've marked down selected fabrics lines by 40%!

Stock is limited so if you want to find yourself a bargain you'll need to be quick! Simply click on the photo below head over to our Sale Fabrics section...

These cushion covers are  so easy to make, and we have to say more than a little addictive! They're a great way of updating your living space; and a quick way of making an individual and unique statement for your home.

We started with some very simple covers using the same fabric for the back and front, these ones still have impact, largely because of the prints we've chosen to make them up in. The cushion above, for example, is made in Ellen Luckett Baker's Half Round in Gold, this is such a statement fabric and has become a firm favourite of ours!

Another great fabric for these cushion covers is Echino's Samber in Natural, again this fabric speaks for itself and looks fantastic when used for both the back and front.

You could also mix it up by using a different fabric on the back to the front. For the cushion below we've used Nani Iro for Kokka's Pierre Pocho in Natural for the front and teamed it with Robert Kaufman's Essex Linen in Steel for the back pieces.

You will need:

• Cushion insert, for the purposes of this tutorial we've chosen to make a cover for an insert measuring 40cm X 40cm, but feel free to make whatever size you prefer
• Fabric of your choice, for the front panel you'll need a piece 42cm X 42cm (this allows for a 1cm seam allowance for a cushion insert measuring 40cm X 40cm); and for the two back panels, 2 pieces each measuring 42cm X 30cm.
• Matching Cotton Thread
• Dressmakers Scissors
• Tape Measure
• Sewing Pins
• Sewing Gauge (not essential, but it makes turning a hem so much easier and quicker!)
• Bamboo Point Turner

To make:

Pre-wash your fabric before starting.

Cut out the front panel as the measurements above if you're making a cover for a 40cm cushion insert, you want the cover to fit snugly.

Next cut the two back panels measuring 42cm X 30cm. Each of these panels needs to be hemmed along one of the 42cm sides. To do this first turn a 1cm hem, pinning as you go (as shown below) and press into place; turn this hem again and iron to create a double fold hem.

Top stitch this folded hem on the right side of the fabric close to the turned edge.

Next place the front panel piece right side up on your work surface. Then lay one of the back pieces right side down onto the front panel, with the unfinished 42cm side lined up with the outer edge of the front cushion piece.

Take the second back panel piece and again place it right side down onto the other fabric pieces, as with the other back piece, the unfinished 42cm side lined up with the outer edge of the front cushion piece.

Pin these pieces in place. Then stitch round all four sides of the cushion cover with a 1cm seam allowance, at each corner sink the needle down, lift the foot and pivot the fabric 90 degrees.

Trim the seams to 5mm, and trim the corners, as shown above, to ensure a neat finish. We finished our seams with a zig zag stitch, but this isn't essential.

Turn your cover inside out, give it a good press and there you have it, your own bespoke cushion cover!

With our friends little boy's first birthday fast approaching, we've the perfect excuse to try out the trousers from the Lullaby Layette Set by Oliver + S! And what better fabric to make them in than our beautifully soft 100% Organic Double Cloth, we've made ours up in both the Blue and the Brown. Because this fabric is organic it doesn't contain any harmful chemicals or dyes, making it ideal for babies and young children as well as adults!

We strongly recommend that you trace off the patterns so that you can re-use it again and again as baby grows. The other thing to note is that these patterns only have a 1cm seam allowance compared to the more standard 1.5cm, this is referenced throughout but we thought worth a mention.

These trousers are really straightforward and easy to make, the instructions are clear and come with helpful illustrations to assist you at each stage of your make.

Take time with the pockets to ensure that they are even, we used a tip we picked up when making up one of our adult Colette patterns, and made a template out of card of the shape of the finished pocket so that we could gather the curved end section of pocket evenly and then press before stitching to the back sections of the trousers. For a patterned fabric you may even decide to leave the pockets off making this an even easier make!

 When it comes to top-stitching the waistband to the front of the trousers we tacked it in place rather than just pinning, to ensure that we covered the stitch line where the waistband is attached to the back of the garment.

Once the waistband's on all that's left to do is turn up the trouser hems and you're done!

These are so easy to make we're sure you'll want to make them again and again! Why not try them in our Organic Crossweaves or Ginghams, Robert Kaufman Chambray Union Herringbone or Woven Stripe, or the Nani Iro for Kokka's Sen Ritsu would look lovely for a girl with a hint of shimmer.