Sunday, 21 February 2016

2016 Secret Valentine Exchange

This was my second year participating in Sanae and Ute's Secret Valentine Exchange, where sewing and craft enthusiasts make handmade gifts for a secret partner. You're given a few details about them - their favourite colours, fabrics, motifs - and if they have a blog or instagram account you can get a sense of their style that way too. It's amazing how much fun it is to make gifts for a stranger - it gives you license to sew all sorts of pretty little things you might not otherwise have a chance (or an excuse) to make. And you can't beat the scrap-busting opportunities that little sewing projects provide!

My SVE partner Sarah lives in Florida and blogs (occasionally!) at dear little water. When I looked at her blog, though, there weren't any recent posts, so I mostly went by the information Sanae and Ute gave me: she likes triangles, moons, stars and nature-inspired things; linen and cotton; and the colours blue, lavender, grey and white. I'd also seen from her blog that she had a young daughter and liked gardening. With those things in mind, here is what I made her:





Drawstring bag from the book Carry Me, made in linen-cotton, lined with lavender linen.
Pleated pouch (from this tutorial) in linen.
Little paper-covered notebooks (inspired by this tutorial) using reproduction vintage paper.
Parsley seeds from my garden.
I also included a teeny tiny paintbox - I adore these, and they make a great handbag-friendly portable activity for little kids.

It was so exciting packing everything up and posting it, although once you place something in Australia Post's hands you never really know what's going to happen to it. It eventually reached its destination only one week late, which isn't too bad. I

You can see all the other Valentine's gifts on Instagram using the hashtag #2016sve. It's well worth a look if you need ideas for handmade presents - there are SO many beautiful things there and plenty to be inspired by. I'm really tempted to buy myself the Stowe Bag pattern now that I've seen so many stunning versions of it, but I really should stick to the patterns I already have, shouldn't I... let's see how long my resolve lasts!

In my next post I'll show you what I received from my lovely SVE partner Mirjam!

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

8 comments:

  1. Jing and Tonic22 February 2016 at 06:29

    That's one (two) spoiled valentine(s)! You've included so many things in the parcel. I like the wrapping paper too. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. marisa23 February 2016 at 20:15

      Thanks Jing, I am a terrible paper hoarder but it does come in handy from time to time :)

      Delete
  2. Lena22 February 2016 at 13:54

    I've had the same thoughts about the Stowe! I really love the tabs as casing for the drawstring on the bag you made. Beautiful gifts!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. marisa23 February 2016 at 20:17

      Thanks! The tabs are quite easy to do and they make the bag close really easily and neatly.

      Delete
  3. Lightning McStitch22 February 2016 at 20:24

    That's a really lovely gift Marisa.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. marisa23 February 2016 at 20:19

      Thank you Shelley. I do love a bit of gift-making!

      Delete
  4. Masha23 February 2016 at 00:01

    It is so lovely. And that tiny paintbox, how cute is that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. marisa23 February 2016 at 20:21

      Isn't it adorable! I did a whole series of paintings using one of those when I was pregnant with my son - one each week of my pregnancy. I like working with a (literally) very limited palette!

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)