A bag here, a bag there

No Christmas bunting to show you this week as I still haven’t quite finished them. However I do have some bags to show you.

I can’t take the credit for this as my mam made it for me a couple of years ago when she was at her quilting class (I think she was sick of me putting my needlework into supermarket carrier bags....).

Her poor bag kept bulging at the seams with all my needlework stuffed in it so she handed me some fabric and suggested I might like to make something with it. Well, it was more like “here, make yourself a new bag, will you !!!!”.

I really loved the style of the bag so took some rough measurements from it as this would allow me to work round the fabric pattern – I couldn’t cut a Scottie dog in half !!!! To stop the handles from flopping down I stitched four buttons at the base of each strap to keep them in place.

When my mam died I inherited all of her fabric. Some of the larger bits were destined to become charity quilts whilst some of the other bits I’d like to eventually make into a memory quilt. Three pieces of fabric caught my eye though as they would be perfect to make into bags.

I combined the two green fabrics together as there wasn’t enough to make two separate bags.

I love pockets in bags (the more the merrier....) so added a zipped pocket in the lining to keep things, like a purse and mobile ‘phone. I also made a little keyring purse and attached it to one of the straps.

I hit lucky with this fabric as it looks like strips of patchwork sewn together. To secure the fabric to the wadding I simply stitched each side of the strips. If only I could get my own patchwork strips that straight !!!

For the lining I used cream fabric as I thought anything patterned would be overkill. To stop the inside looking too plain I added a small band of the main fabric to the top of the lining and to the pocket zip. Again I attached a keyring purse to one of the straps.
 
There were some bits of fabric left so I made a set of make-up bags.

I didn’t have enough of the dark green fabric to use on all three bags so the two smaller ones are plain while the large bag is made up of patchwork squares.

For a simple decorative finish on the larger of the three ‘patchwork’ bags I stitched three horizontal and vertical lines making the illusion of squares.

Each of the two smaller sized bags has fabric lining whilst both the larger bags have waterproof lining.

As I mentioned in ‘a new beginning’ I’m setting up my own business so the green and the ‘patchwork’ bags will be going into stock ready for when I go live hopefully by October next year.

Have a great week.

Love,

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.