On knowing where to draw the creative line... or not

It's an anxious day for this mama today with our little girl having a small operation (day surgery) and our big girl having her first day of Year 1. But more on that tomorrow...

Recently I've made a few presents for friends' birthdays, one of them for a 40th (and I'm joining the club this year too - yikes!). My friend loves clothes and accessories so I wanted to give her something I'd made especially for her. I decided on one of my 'no sew jersey scarves', which I'd been enjoying wearing myself til the weather started to really heat up here.



So I made one in this soft magenta jersey, adding a bit more detail with extra knotting.



Then I decided on a little zip purse to go with it in this lovely cotton print. I lined it in a burgundy cotton, adding a pink zip and a beautiful green and pink ribbon as a zip pull.



* A little tip to stop ribbon fraying is to run a thin line of glue (I used super glue) along the raw edge and let it dry. If you've accidently applied too much or the edge is a bit ragged you can trim the edge once the glue is dry, as long as you don't go beyond the glued area, or it will fray again.

Once the purse was finished I placed it with the scarf and... ARGHH! That horrible feeling hit me where you know you've gone too far. It was too pink, too girly, and altogether too much really.



I had a feeling that probably the scarf and purse would look fine separately, but in order to make it a more stylish gift I went back to my stash and cut a lovely piece of mushroom/chocolate coloured jersey and made a new, simpler version of the scarf. Then I took the bright ribbon off the purse and replaced it with one that toned in with the new scarf. I briefly considered unpicking the whole purse and re-lining it with an oatmeal coloured linen to further tone down the whole thing, but dismissed this due to time constraints (and to keep my sanity!).



On a whim when wrapping the present, I added the pink scarf in. I sheepishly told my friend what happened and, you guessed it, she preferred the pink anyway! Hmm, maybe I should have trusted my instincts first time around!!