Bags Galore

Howdy! I finally have gotten the old butt in gear enough to show you two bags I made over the last couple of months. This first one was for my grandma (g'ma) to carry her Bible to church. I used the tote pattern from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, and just sized it down a bit. I kinda sorta expected the embroidered flowers on the bottom half to go, er, the other way. heh. But I think it still looks good.



G'ma loves pink, so I had to figure out how to incorporate some pink in the midst of all the brown, black and white. Enter the embroidered flowers. I got this vintage embroidery pattern from Thimble. I'm pretty new to embroidery, but I think I'm getting the knack of it.


Here is the other bag I made recently. It's the pretty pleated tote from Angry Chicken's book, Bend the Rules Sewing. I liked this pattern, but not as much as the little ribbon purse from the same book. This turned out much bigger than I thought. I also thought the fabrics I picked would "pop" a little more than they did. I am proud to say this is made of entirely pre-loved materials! The pink satin is from a pair of pajamas I got for Christmas which looked terrible on. They have come in handy on several projects, however :) The brown floral is from a thrifted pillow case, and the floral appliques I added to make the whole thing more interesting (I hope it worked) are also from a thrifted pillow case. I used some leftover canvas from my painting supplies for the interior. I think I'll try this project again some time, only size it down considerably, and perhaps had some kind of closure at the top. I do like that I figured out how to do pleats. Definitely worth it.

My next entry will be all about handmade clothes - I have a skirt and a shirt to show you. Oh yeah, and I never got that pattern I ordered :( It got lost in the mail. How sad. I'll have to keep looking for something that cool.