Bags for Christmas

I'm kind of hooked on this bags that I learned how to make on Craftsy. It's a free class by Kristin Link who runs the very successful website Sew Mama Sew. I have a lot of upholstery fabric scraps. I had about 4 yards of some black suit wool that I bought at Scrap in Portland. The interiors are all from my fabric collection. The flower fabric above is a piece of barkcloth that I have had for a very long time. I kept thinking I would make a pillow to show off the print. The gold fabric is a piece of upholstery fabric that has a dragon on it. I used some gold lame fabric that I bought at garage sale several years ago (I have about 1/2 a bolt of the gold lame). I was not sure what I would make with gold lame but this is the perfect project to use up the fabric as liners for the bags.

 I put my label on the inside of a couple of the bags. This was more as a way to show the person I'm giving the bag to that I actually made the bag. These are the labels that I put on the clothes I make. I like that the labels match the gold lame fabric. I used some old white handkerchiefs that belonged to my father for one of the bags above. I try to use up as much textile scrap as I can, I really had to see any textile go to waste.

I had a very cute linen table runner and thought that it would make a great bag too. So I cut out the a piece to show off the print on the fabric. The tapestry bag is another piece of heavy upholstery fabric, it really feels like a needlepoint. This was another piece that I have had for awhile and I was going to try to use it to recover a small chair. I instead decided that it needed to be used for one of these bags.

My neighbor gave me several different pieces of fabric with birds that she had bought on-line for curtains. She was not sure which pattern she wanted so she bought a few different pieces of fabric. The fabric above was a little stiff, it feels more like a canvas and more then likely would not have made nice curtains. I made a couple of different bags, one with the black wool fabric and one with jean material (another gift from a friend that knows of my textile hoarding problem). I like them both, the jean material bag on the right feels a little more casual then the black wool bag.

And another bag with the black wool and some bark cloth. Again I was going to make some curtains from the bark cloth but there was not really enough, so it has sat in my stash for some time. These bags are a great way to highlight a small piece of lovely fabric. And they take about an hour or less to make. 

I have collected a few needlepoints to use in future bags as the focal point. I often look for needlepoints at thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales. You can find some interesting things at estate sales. This year for Christmas everyone is getting a home made bag filled with home made preserves.

Vintage Apron

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Sew Mama Sew. I had signed up to get a message on different challenges or submissions they may want from the sewing community. I was not chosen for their most recent request for submissions to make something for the kitchen. So since I had this vintage apron pattern out on my sewing table and have been waiting for a reason to make it, I challenged myself to get it done.  The pattern is a Simplicity 4868, a bib apron with a pocket. I have an apron from this pattern that my great grandmother made years ago and I wore that apron till it fell apart. I have the pattern in large, medium and small, I guess my great grandmother loved this pattern too. 

I had pulled out the pink fabric to cut out the apron several months ago but never got around to cutting out the pattern. Once I started to lay out the pattern pieces I realized I did not have enough of the pink fabric...I dug into my fabric bins and came up with this blue fabric that is printed with a cute Country Fair type of scene. 

I completed the apron in less about 2 hours, I did sew the back strap on upside down at first and had to take it off. I also had some problems with the way the back tie was connected. I think of this as a trial run. Now that I know where I had problems, I can make it again.  I will also play around with using different fabrics for the front and sides. 

I love wearing these type of aprons with a summer dress that doesn't have pockets. Or maybe wear it when I'm up in the community garden. The skirt is nice and full so it would hold a lot of vegetable. I always forget to bring a container with me to the garden and often end up filling my skirt of top with my bounty. I have always liked aprons that have a full front and of course POCKETS. Next time I make this apron I will put two pockets on the front. 

Zipper bags

I have been obsessed with these zipper bags since I learned how to make them on Craftsy. It's a free class with Kristin Link of Sew Mama Sew. They are easy and take up very little fabric, about a fat quarter of fabric. I made 3 more the other evening in about an hour. I use scrap leather for the little handle on the left of the bag. Though I really like these bags they are a little large for my purse. I needed something to hold change instead of just dropping quarters into my bag. Then I found this tutorial!!! on making small triangle pouches. 

I made 2 pouches.  The first one is the tan one made from scrap upholstery fabric. The fabric was a little heavy so I had some problems sewing it all together. Also the original tutorial called for a 4" zipper. I had a 6" zipper so I just increased the size of the bag. It turned out a little too large, not to mention that it also was too bulky. I had some problems turning it inside out too as I forgot to unzip the zipper. I decided to try to make another one. I had taken a zipper out of a dress a couple weeks ago and I cut that red zipper to 4". I used some more scrap material, it was a heavier fabric but not a heavy upholstery fabric like the tan fabric. I whipped this little blue one up in about 15 minutes. The best thing is when you unzip the pouch you can see everything inside. The other change purse I had was problematic because the opening was so small I could not see inside and often had to dump all the change out on the counter. It was a little frustrating for folks in line behind me at the grocery store. I love these little pouches. I want to make a bunch of them using crushed pennies as zipper pulls. 

I saw this quilt hanging on the wall at Modern Domestic when I was in there to sign up for a class. I really like the quilt. The quilts that are currently on the wall are all made by instructors at Modern Domestic. I forgot to look at who did this quilt but I wanted to share it because I really like the design.  I love the deer head and the quilt is quilted all over with a tree pattern, a very Northwest quilt. 

This year was a good year for me and tomatoes. I grew a lot and was able to put up about 13 quarts and several pints of tomatoes. I also found a quick way to make tomato sauce and when I had too many tomatoes I would take the ones getting too soft and cook them up in a sauce pan with about 1/4 cup of water and some garlic. When the tomatoes were mostly liquid I would pour the sauce into a food mill removing all the seeds and getting a nice thick sauce. Last week was the last of the tomatoes and I was able to get about 4 pints of sauce. 

I drove up to Brightwood to put my car away last weekend, I kept looking for fall colors. A lot of the trees are still quite green except for this bright red tree, when I saw it, it was almost like it was on fire…the tree really stood out against all the green. 

I also made a couple more zipper bags from the free class on Craftsy with Kristin Link from SewMamaSew. It takes me about 45 minutes from start to finish. They are really handy for pens and pencils, sewing supplies or just a small zipper case for all those things that roll around in the bottom of a purse. The pattern uses a 13"x10" piece of fabric for the outside and the same for the lining. So it's very  easy to use up scrap from other projects. 

It's very windy here today….so far we have had a branch from the walnut tree drop in the back yard and our car port blow over landing on our truck in the driveway. Thank goodness there is no real damage.