Beginner Bag Giveaway

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Kitchen Table Sewing... happy birthday to you!"

It has been a year since I started out on the crafty adventure I like to call Kitchen Table Sewing. To celebrate the fun it has given me, I am giving away a specially made by me bag to one of my readers. (Ha, ha. I think it sounds funny saying that, as I am not sure I have any readers as such, if by that I am referring to people who make a habit of reading my waffle, and don't like to ever miss an instalment. Like subscribers to The Economist, The Times or Private Eye. Oh, and add to that, Kitchen Table Sewing, please. He, he.)

At about the same time as I started the blog, I began teaching sewing classes. My inspiration to teach people how to sew came to me the morning after a sewing night with friends. It was after a night where I'd been showing them how to make a Mini Boden style dress that I realised how much I enjoyed teaching people how to sew. I talked the idea through with my husband Mark, who encouraged me to go for it.

Machines all ready for some sewing fun

I decided on holding the classes in my home - not least because the kettle and cake tin are within easy reach, but also, my thinking being if people were genuine beginners, they would need plenty of my attention, and so my own kitchen table would be just right. Four shiny new sewing machines later, and a few calls to some of the many friends who had in the past declared words to the effect of "I wish I could sew" in my hearing, I held my first guinea pig course.

Smug Cake at the ready

The best bit has most definitely been seeing people experience the same buzz I get whenever I have made something I feel proud of. A year on, I count myself really lucky that I get to share my passion with other people. A sincere thank you to all who have come along to a course over the last year - I love doing what I do, and you have made a little dream come true for me.

So, a bit about the bag I am giving away.

This is the bag I teach complete beginners how to make, and it is based on the lovely Anna of Noodle-head's tutorial.

"Now, where are my keys?"

I have taken the liberty of adding a special key chain, so you can easily locate your keys amongst all the stuff the bag is no doubt big enough to hold.

"Here they are!"

You can see I have had fun with this version - combining some utterly cool Echino print with some funky pink pom-pom trim. Love. It. May struggle to part with it, so I hope it brings a big smile to whoever wins it - and there isn't another one like it.

Echino print + pink pom-poms = my bag heaven

Anyhow, the good thing is if you have got this far, you may as well enter, as chances are you won't have much competition for the grand draw. Which, by the way, I'll be doing the old fashioned way with names on folded up bits of paper and a hat - there'll be none of this random number generator nonsense that bigger blogs have to bother themselves with. (For that, you can safely assume I have no clue whatsoever how to create a random number generator and am actually just secretly a but envious of a) the superior technical skills and b) the wider readership of bigger blogs that do require them.)

To enter:

1. Leave a comment below - saying what you'd like to learn to sew OR describing your ideal bag
2. Click on the Facebook icon at the bottom of the post and share the link.

...and for a bonus extra entry in the fabulous hat of names on folded up pieces of paper:

3. `Like' my Kitchen Table Sewing page by clicking  here

That's it! The deadline for entries will be Friday 15th June - and I'll announce the winner on here a couple of days after that.

Good luck, and have a happy weekend, everyone!