Bags, Bags, Bags

A few posts ago I wrote that I wanted to use all the fabric I have recently purchased. This has resulted in more bags. Although some I made specifically for gifts.

When I went to England earlier this year, I purchased some ribbon. It was printed with the Union Flag and I thought it would be fun to make some bags for friends with it. I decided to make pyramid bags which meant the purchase of three zippers and then another gap before I got around to making the bags. (And even then I forgot to take them with me last time I saw my two friends together.)

When I did sit down to sew the bags I could not remember why I had chosen that particular length of zipper so just made the bags to fit the zips. Now I’m wondering if that was the shortest length in the colour I wanted and I planned to cut them. No big deal as this way I used all the ribbon. I cut out interfacing to size, fused the ribbon to it and then zig-zag stitched along the edges. This was used as the main fabric and I had plenty of a cream for the lining.



Sometime last year, I purchased a set of blue fat quarters with the idea of making another bento bag. Jo-ann’s sells them in sets of five. When I opened them up I realized that they were all very similar, dark blue with small white print, except for one which was light. (I don’t have a photo of all five together.) I wanted the light colour for the body of the bag but thought the other pieces were too dark for the lining so I used some left over fabric. I hope whoever I give this too doesn’t mind baseballs. The inside of the handle is also left over fabric; all the other fabric is from the fat quarter set. I did not have any suitable ribbon/cord so used what I have for the time being.



The next bag I made is one for which I had had the pattern a while (free at Jo-ann’s), had purchased the zipper a long time ago and finally decided to use fabric in stash. I really like the bag even though it didn’t turn out too well. The problem was that the fabric I used is quite thick so I had difficulty making and attaching the tab. Also the interfacing I have is too thick for when all pieces are interfaced. I really need to buy some thinner interfacing. I deliberately didn’t line up the zig-zag stitching but wish I had made them more offset or only on one side.



I can definitely see myself making more of these as pencil cases for children.