I like to create bags from everyday items. Here I have used two tea towels, some denim and a section of a pillow case.
The tea towels I used were bought as a pack of two. I kept them together using one for the outside and the other for the inside. The inside pocket was made using part of a grey pillow case. The denim was from a jacket.
I bought the denim dress from a supermarket. I bought the new york city t-shirt when I visited New York mid 2016 and wasn’t sure what to do with it, I knew I didn’t want to wear it! I created a tote bag using the dress, t-shirt and one other fabric. (photo of the bag to follow)
I bought this denim jacket from a supermarket and decided to create a bag out of it. I used the flowery fabric as the lining of the bag, which I added an inside pocket to. I used the bottom strip of the jacket as the strap. I sewed the front of the jacket down where the buttons are to create the front of the bag, and then put it all together (photo to follow).
My heart cushions are now complete!
On the cushion with the treble clef in the middle of the heart, my ladder stitch needs work! I think I stuffed it a little too much so when I came to sew the ladder stitch the edge went all lumpy. The other two cushions are sewn up quite well.
After five weeks the Messenger Bag is coming on really well, and actually starting to look like a proper bag! The only things left to do are the inside lining, binding around the top and to attach the strap.
Here is what it looks like so far…
If you would like to join a sewing class run by Plum’s Stuff check out this link: here
I followed the plan…
I always seem to have a problem with the size of the fabric. When the pieces are cut out they are the same size, but when they are sewn together they change! This wasn’t that much of a problem thankfully!
The vision I had for my new drawstring bag was to sew each section together as I went (outside 1 to inside 1 then the same with 2), then sew the two together. It was a disaster!!
Then I thought it wouldn’t have worked anyway because the four ends of the drawstring sections were all open. The objective was to only have one side open, because that is what went off with the first attempt!
With some more thought… I came to the idea of putting the bag together like I would a tote bag. SO… the first thing is instead of having four separate sides, have two sides double width and fold it in half when I come to sew it together. The second thing is to have the top outside section larger than the inside section and fold it over and sew around the top edge.
One of the things I have to be really spot on with are the measurements to make sure that both sides (apart from the one top section) are exactly the same size… that’s the plan anyhow!
I was looking for things to make and I came across this sewing blog: Threading My Way and a tutorial for a drawstring bag.
I had a go at making the bag…
The main difficulty I had was when I attached the lining to the main bag around the drawstring section (blue rose fabric). For some reason the two sections together don’t match up correctly at the drawstring openings.
What is different from the tutorial are the dimensions that I’ve used for my bag, they are: (cut 2 of each) 4″ x 10″ top, 2″ x 10″ drawstring section, 8″ x 10″ bottom, 14″ x 10″ lining (measurements in inches).
Following on from the post “New hearts”, this is the first new heart cushion I have finished… it’s filled with hollowfibre filling and I’ve used the ladder stitch to close the gap. It’s not shown on this image but for the back I used a different shade of blue – fat quarter, cut to the size (slightly bigger) of 12″ by 13″ (inches).
The new heart designs are coming on well. I’ve got to the stage where I’m ready to sew around the edges of the fabric for each heart. I think these ones will be square-ish!!
