Bag It 2017 #3

I am playing along with Elm Street Quilts Bag It 2017. What fun this is! I have set myself a goal of 22 bags over the 3 month period, which will be perfect for having a bag as a Christmas present for each of the ladies in my/Hubster’s immediate families. I have fabrics and patterns and zippers ready to go for most all of the items I plan to make.

I finally got the Open Wide! Bag project, in those lovely purples, on the cutting mat. I knew I wanted to do more than just a contrast band across the front so I pieced a panel of squares in squares. I added sashing to have a better edge to turn under for the topstitching. I backed it with interfacing before stitching on.

As I was working on the block panel I realized my sewing set up was a bit difficult. I have my ironing board wedged in between my sewing table and a TV cabinet. To get to my cutting area I had to do a walk about of the ironing board. It was causing me issues. To alleviate my pain and suffering I placed my mat on the sewing table and lowered my ironing board and pulled it into my sewing area. Much better.

  

From left to right: Pieces quilted and cut to size, pieced panel added to public side, pockets added to inside, seams sewn to shape the bag.

Finally learning to use the things I bought to enhance my handwork!
Clips make holding pieces together SOOO much easier! No pin pricks. And I love adding my label to the outside in hidden spots.

And a bit of sewing, resewing, and sewing again, to get the zipper and binding on right!, I had bag 3/21 done!!!

 
 

And I love it! So glad I have leftovers from this combo to make something for me!

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Sunday Stash

I usually do my stash report on Saturday, but now that I am sewing I am joining in with a fabric stash confession link party, so now Sunday is the day for declaring my stashing.

Yarn
On Hand: 62,454 yards/338 skeins
Knitted: 56 yards and 1 skeins
Purchased: 0 yards 0 skeins
Ending Stash: 62,398 yards/336 skeins

Fabric This Week
Fabric In: 8.625 yards
Fabric Out: 5 yards
Net Fabric In/Out: +3.625 yards

Month to Date
Fabric In: 19
Fabric Out: 12.375
Net Fabric In/Out: +6.625

Need to work on that fabric business! As in, no more buying! Fabric out this week was for the 5 bags I made, another Candy Corn, and some destashing. Fabric in this week was a Fat Quarter sale I could not pass up, backing for a wall hanging, special request pink for a bag, and yardage for a pillow class that has been rescheduled.

But I swear, no more fabric right now! I have tons of fabric for all kinds of projects, I need no more! At all. For sure. No, I mean it! Instead I’ll just buy all kinds of patterns, specialty rulers, and bag making supplies! LOL

joining with Quilt Paint Create

Bag It 2017 Bag 2

I am playing along with Elm Street Quilts Bag It 2017. What fun this is! I have set myself a goal of 22 bags over the 3 month period, which will be perfect for having a bag as a Christmas present for each of the ladies in my/Hubster’s immediate families. I have fabrics and patterns and zippers ready to go for most all of the items I plan to make.

Keeping with the pink fabric, as in the 1st bag, I eked out a smaller bag using The Sewing Chick’s Zipper Pouch Tutorial. I had some 2″ HST’s leftover from playing with scraps so I decided they would be a perfect pieced panel for this bag. I did have to piece the striped fabric from 2 rectangles, but that’s OK, you can’t really tell. The two squares with the circles are for tab ends for the zipper. Used a basic solid for the lining and a stiff interfacing on the outer layer.

I alternated the HST’s to get a pleasing look and then sashed it top and bottom.  Boxed corners at the bottom give it that stand up shape.

I need to find a good interfacing that gives the bag structure, but not stiffness. I could use Warm and Natural, but it’s not that good for the structure I want. For this size bag I much prefer a regular garment zipper in place of the outer wear zippers so many bag makers use. Less zipper tape and smaller metal pieces make for an easier sew.

This makes 2 Christmas Presents for the year, and I am not even past the 3rd week of September. Will my steam rolling continue? Likely only if I change up the patterns and try new things! Boredom definitely stops my progress!