More Bags for Sale...

I have been busy at the sewing machine and wanted to let you see some of the results.

This pink one has already been listed on Etsy.com and you can find the link to my store in the side bar.

The pink bag is made from a linen type of fabric with a deep pocket on the outside. There is a button loop closure. It is also fully reversible with a darker pink for the strap and interior. (See details in my store for more info).

This little blue Hawaiian bag was fun to make. One of my girlfriends had ordered a Big bag for her to use while riding the bus and I used the leftover material to make smaller bags. She also bought one of these in the picture, so I only have one of them. It will be listed in Etsy sometime this afternoon...I need to get an individual picture of it. :)

This Pansy bag was fun to make. Again, it is big! I made a similar one for my friend (who rides the bus). The exterior has BIG pansies...they are about 6" across! The interior was made from satin found in my mother's attic. It also has a big pocket on the inside made from the pansy fabric as shown here...and on the other side, the pockets go all the way across to hold things like pens and magazines. The handles are perfect to hold on to your shoulder and there is a magnetic snap to keep things closed.

See the big pansies! I love this bag and really wish I could keep it, but to be honest, I need to help our budget more.

A better view of the long pockets.

Ok...this is the bag I started and finished yesterday. I'm really pleased with it too! It's fully reversible and I have pictured it both ways. Here you see the silk on the exterior and the weave of the silk is purple and gold, so the sheen is quite fabulous. It needed some embellishment, so with my stash of leftover yarns and such, I made the tassel. The tassel is just tied on somewhat loosely so it can be removed when the bag needs cleaning.

The other fabric has an Oriental feel to it with fans floating across it.

The silk was a wonderful find at a garage sale in a free box. It was a discarded throw pillow cover that I picked apart. Pretty cool.

This is Scott's hand showing where the pocket is. :) The bag is big enough to easily hold a regular sized binder, or a few books. Or just a great bag to take shopping. I opted to not use a magnetic snap as then it wouldn't be reversible.

Isn't it beautiful! I will be posting this one too on Etsy this afternoon. After pricing silk fabric at a quilt store the other day at almost $30 a yard, I'm hoping to get a good price for this.

Red Purse

A few weeks ago I decided to try out a new purse pattern. My friend Eva was over and she had the pattern in a book and on the cover of the book it looked really cool. So I got everything cut out and then the pieces sat on the counter for a few days. I was actually scared to get started. This purse was totally different from any other I had ever made. It also had strange sounding instructions that were difficult for me to understand. So for a few days I just stared at the cut pieces.

FYI, the exterior fabric of the bag comes from a scarf made of 100% cotton that was given to me by my Mom. She has given me several scarves to see what I can do with them...

The strangest piece to me was the 'u' shaped piece that needed to be sewn between the two side pieces of both the outside and the lining. The exterior also got pleated, but the lining was not. That part I could figure out...no problem.

Once I finally got started, it went pretty well. That 'u' shaped thing though needed lots and lots of pins to make sure I really got it right.

Here is the final result of the exterior before I get the top sewed on.

The pattern called for just sewing in some loops to attach wood handles, and as you can see, I opted for traditional handles.

Then there was the challenge of getting the tops sewed to the base of the bag. What you don't see is that I had to pin and re-pin this three times! It was after the first pinning when I figured out that this was also when I needed to be sewing in the lining. I also learned after this purse was done to iron a little flap on the lining side of the top before any pinning and sewing is done...just a little short cut I learned in the process of the doing.

Here is the final result! This has got to be the hardest sewing project I have ever done to date and I learned a lot in the process. Already I know where I would change things. First, I would make the body of the bag bigger. Second, that 'u' shaped thing has got to be changed! Third, the entire bag does not need to be stiffened with pellon.


So with the things I have learned...I have already cut out another bag, this time a pink and green one.