Don’t you love this photo? We went out to lunch for Julie’s birthday and I took this in the restaurant.
Friend Julie‘s birthday is December 1 and generally it sneaks up on me, but this year I was prepared! I got a jump on it. In the frenzy of fabric pressing before Thanksgiving, I found some fabric I had bought to make napkins. I picked out some purples to go on the back and started some napkins. I also decided that Julie needed a One Hour Basket, so I made one of those as well.
I bought her some books and things as well, but I do like to make things for people who appreciate them. Also, I feel like I am sewing in place, so a couple of finishes was great.
I constantly try to find ways to reduce the huge environmental toll from holiday-related purchases. I have harped about this for years. One way is using gift bags. The fabric may not be terribly environmentally friendly to make in factories in Korea, but once the fabric is here and made into gift bags, they can be used them over and over. Fabric gift bags reduce the amount of paper we use during the holidays.
I practice what I preach and see so many advantages for using gift bags. The biggest negative is actually having to make them before you can use them. I have made gift bags to fit certain gifts in the middle of wrapping. They don’t take much time, can be as complicated as you like and are customizable. The biggest bonus is you get to see your holiday favorite fabrics over and over without actually having to make a holiday quilt.
Lush Gift Bag
Here is the tutorial using French seams to prevent raveling.
Supplies:
Machine in good working order
fabric (any kind of fabric to fit your holiday works well)
thread
ribbon
basic sewing supplies
I press a double hem* on one side of a relevant size piece of fabric** and finish it with a decorative stitch. As a bonus, this is a good way to get to know the resources, e.g. time and thread, required to use your decorative stitches.
Once done, I fold the piece in half, wrong sides together, aligning the hem at the top. I put a piece of ribbon, folded in half, inside the piece. The fold of the ribbon will be sticking of the side a little bit and is placed about a quarter of the way down the side.
I sew down the side, starting with the hem. I sew less than a quarter inch from the side. I reinforce the start, the the ribbon and the end by backstitching over it a few times. Then I turn the bag wrong side out.
Trim any stray threads along your tiny seam allowance.
Press.
Once pressed, I sew again using a larger seam allowance to cover the raw edges. Make sure the ribbon closure stays out of the way. This completely encloses the raw edge.
Turn the bag right side out and press again. Your bag is ready to use.
I love using gift bags for gifts. Besides the fact that I am terrible at wrapping gifts with paper, I intensely dislike wrapping gifts with paper, tape and ribbon. The fabric feels so much nicer in my hands. If a tag falls off the gift you can easily open it, look in and re-tie. No harm done to a beautiful wrapping job.
*Note: I often use the selvedge instead of hemming to speed up the process.
**Note on fabric sizes: I make the most basic gift bags with a fat quarter, but also use half yards and yards, depending on the size needed. I have also pieced fabric together to wrap larger and smaller gifts, but generally like to use standard sizes and then put the gift into whatever bag size works. Leftover fabric from making pillowcases are good to use as well.
We sent the YM off on Tuesday for a brief trip to visit his freshman year roommate before he heads back to college.
Already! Can you believe it? The four months flew by.
I made pillowcases for his friends.
College Pillowcases
I saw some Pokemon fabric the last time I went to the hairdresser and described it to the YM . He wasn’t interested but he must have described the fabric (the skills of the quiltmaker’s young) to his sophomore year roommate who wanted a pillowcase from it. I bought some and made it. In the course of rummaging for cuff fabric, I found some chocolate fabric I had designated for a pillowcase and sewed that one up as well. The chocolate pillowcase went to the girl of the trio. I haven’t heard if they received them, but I am sure they did.
A photo like this makes me want to send these nephews more gifts. 😉 I don’t even care if the photo was staged! It makes my heart warm to know that they were willing to stage it. They seem to like the Star Wars pillowcases.
There was a Sew-in this past weekend (4th of July in the US) and I spent most of the time working on the finishing aspects of the Food Quilt #3. I finished the binding on Saturday and the back on Sunday. Even though I have other projects on which to work, this felt like a coup.
Food Quilt #3: Finished top
The piece is about 101″x 86″. Yes, it is huge, which means that I don’t have a full picture of the top or back. The YM was gone, it was cold outside and I don’t have a room large enough to lay out the back or top. The above photo is part of the top with a bit of the back peeking through.
Food Quilt #3: Finished back
Of course the back is larger. Again, I have shown you only part of it due to the size.
I am pleased that this is done and will see about getting this and FOTY 2015 to the quilter soon.
Right before we had to leave for the NDGW Grand Parlor, I decided the front of the Heart Bag needed something more. I didn’t have a suitable button which I have put on other versions of this bag. Finally, I decided (perhaps SIL suggested?) to applique’ a heart on to the front. I cut out one of the hearts from the scrap of fabric I had left. I used raw edge applique to sew it on and an Aurifil thread that matched pretty well.
Heart Bag with Applique’ detail
I don’t think the placement will be in the way too much and I sewed it very close to the edge to minimize fraying, though there will be some.
I am pleased with how it turned out. I think it breaks up the expanse of red just a bit.
The recipient really liked the bag, which was gratifying.
I finished the Heart Bag over Memorial Day weekend, but since I am friends with people who know the recipient, I decided not to post about it until it had been given. Also, I found out that DH reads my posts. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was. He read the last post on this Heart Bag and questioned me (not in a bad way) about my whining. I had to explain that I was tired and things went much better after I recovered more from the NSGW Grand Parlor. There is a fine line between wanting desperately to sew and being too tired to sew.
Heart Bag: Finished
So, the bag is finished and I am pleased with the way it came out. The ShapeFlex interfacing gives the bag some structure, which I like, though it can still be folded for easier storage. I love that stuff!
I think I felt especially bad about that twisted strap, because I made an effort to ensure it wasn’t twisted when I first sewed it on. I felt like a gremlin had snuck into my workroom and twisted it while I was looking away just to be mean and frustrate me.
Heart Bag decorative stitch
I thought about leaving it, but didn’t feel right so I ripped it out (good time to focus on podcasts!) and now it is not twisted.
The pattern calls for the edging to be topstitched, so I used a heart decorative stitch. I like the heart stitch on my Janome 9000, but you know that story. The stitch on the DC5100 is much more substantial. The machine goes over the stitches a few times each. Not all of them came out perfectly, especially around the straps, but matters of the heart are never perfect.
I really like that heart batik. It has a good hand, doesn’t fray and the heart motif is not kitschy. I have a bit more left and am said to use it up, but it has been hanging around for awhile so it is good to use it.
Heart Bag inside
I have to do something better about the pockets on this bag. I always do them wrong, though wrong is relative since they still work. I just don’t do them according to the pattern and I think I need to add more of them. There is always next time.
I made a little progress on Food Quilt #3 over last weekend. The center is now done. My next step is to put a thin (not sure how thin) black border around the center and then attach the piano key border to the black border. I have to decide if I want to use a solid back or a white on black. If I use the latter, I want it to have a subtle white design on it.
You may have also noticed that I have broken the bounds of the design wall and the quilt is laying on the floor. Crazy, I know!
This is a different kind of gift bag than the one I usually make. A few years ago I made a couple of bags for wine. I was thinking of those bags when I bought the olive oil** for the hostess gifts. I remembered the basics so I didn’t even look at the post until I was writing this post. Also, I had just finished the Heart Bag, so I was freshly well versed in handles and turning bags. I felt confident that I could make one of these bags easily.
Gift Bag – Full
The size is different from wine, but I just measured the bottles of olive oil and made one bag (about 15″ around) for both bottles and the pour spout. The size was generous, though not so much that the bottles clinked around against each other. I used some leftover pieces of batting to beef up the sturdiness of the bag. I used something different last time, but didn’t note what I used. It was pretty stiff. The batting worked fine this time.
I made two handles this time and think I prefer just one handle. It isn’t as fussy around the top. All in all, I am pretty pleased with how this bag came out and especially pleased that it was a quick project. I will definitely make more.
**Nota bene: there is a fancy olive oil store near my old office and we find that giving fancy olive oil is different than giving wine. Most people bring wine as a hostess gift and fancy olive oil is usable and well received.
Last Monday was the day to start the latest Food Quilt. The YM wasn’t home and DH was doing his NSGW stuff, so I was pretty much left to entertain myself. 😉 It might be the last Food Quilt, but we will see. After making the binding for FOTY 2015, I started sewing the 9 patches I needed to get this quilt started. I made really good progress.
First Food Quilt 9 Patch6 Food Quilt 9 Patches
The first one was quickly followed by 6 of them.
Food Quilt #3- 9 Patches
I was shocked to get all of them done in one day. I had some leftover parts. Poor counting. I thought I would use them for the back or for another quilt. Then SIL came over to talk about sewing and we discussed the size. The giftee for this quilt is very tall and would not cover him, so eventually, after discussing rearranging the blocks, I decided to make 4 more blocks. I will use the extra parts as a starting point.
Food Quilt #3 – Blocks Cut
After making all the 9 patches, I decided I would see what cutting the blocks up looked like. That is always a fun exercise. I thought I would do one. In a short amount of time, I did them all.
I’d like to do a different layout than the other two. Food Quilt #2 has a kind of zigzaggy look and Food Quilt #1 has a more traditional one block surrounded by sashing and cornerstones look. I am toying with putting the blues together in the middle. I think it looks good. If I do that layout, I’ll have to repress some of the seams. The one thing I am contemplating is whether I want the food fabrics touching. I plan to look online at some layouts for the Disappearing 9 Patch.
I think I will be able to get this done relatively quickly. After I make the extra blocks, the holdup will be the applique’ on the back and I have a good process in my head for making the templates, so it is a matter of sitting down to do it.
Every time I make pillowcases, I feel like I am doing it wrong, then the pillowcase comes out fine and I feel mystified that the process worked, but vindicated that the process worked. All I can do is guess that the burrito method is not linear and that is part of the issue for me.
After finishing a big project, I wanted something quick. I also had making a pillowcase for one of the YM’s friends stuck in my head. I spent a lot of time pressing fabric on Friday night and came across a blue that would be perfect. I also found a perfect cuff fabric. Everything came together et Voilà! It was meant to be.
Dylan’s Pillowcase
I used my guide to remind me of the pillowcase making details and the project only took me a little bit of time. It was very satisfying to finish something.
This is for someone whose favorite color is royal blue. I haven’t heard of Royal Blue as a favorite in a really long time, if ever. People love turquoise (ahem) or periwinkle or navy, but Royal Blue is new one on me. Good thing I had some fabric that was close.
Tom’s Pillowcase
Once finished I thought of the YM’s other good friend. All of the Musketeers would know if one got a pillowcase and the other didn’t, so I made a second pillowcase from some relatively subtle music themed fabric.
I thought I might have enough of that music fabric to make the YM one with a different cuff, so the two friends could coordinate their beds. I can dream, can’t I?
No such luck. The piece was larger than a yard, but not by much, so the leftovers are not large enough to make the body of another pillowcase. I might use the leftovers and a solid to make a cuff. The YM has plenty of pillowcases, though, so we will see.
I know I have some Star Wars fabric and a piece of Angry Birds yardage. I am tempted to make a few more pillowcases. Two of my nephews were using their Christmas pillowcases on Mother’s Day, so they might be the happy recipients of new pillowcases.
I don’t know why I agreed to make this bag. Actually, it was my idea to make the bag and DH agreed. I suggested it, started making it and after the cutting, the sewing just became one problem after another.
I stopped because I was tired and haven’t gotten back to it since Sunday. I will because I feel better about it now. Also, I want to make this bag as a gift and it has been awhile since I made one, so I need a refresher.
I am actually not sure which one I made last, but I think it was the Candy Tote with Flowers. I love the stripes and flowers I used on that tote. I can’t remember who received that one. It could have been the clear one. Both were made in 2009 and I can’t find any more versions after that. 6 years! WOW.
Anyway, back to the Heart tote. I have to take the strap off the side above as I put it on wrong. Somehow I got it twisted even though I was trying to be careful. Exhaustion, I think.
I dug out that heart batik, which is the only heart fabric I have left. It isn’t as sweet as some and I like it, but I am glad to use it as well.
Well, my big plans for pillowcases almost fell apart, but not quite. I sent one last care package and snuck in the last pillowcase. What I didn’t do well was report on my progress. My last update was in January.
September
Theme: soft
Fabric: Minkee and flannel
Theme: Back to School
Fabric: Timeless Treasures Fun #2306
September College Pillowcase
September College Pillowcase
Back-to-School Pillowcase
Back-to-School Pillowcase
As I said in a previous post, I was tempted by a “School Daze” theme and he was ok with the fabric.
October
Theme: Halloween
Fabric: skeleton fabric by Timeless Treasures for the body. The cuff is an old P&B Fabric.
Halloween Pillowcase for YM
Halloween Pillowcase for YM
This is a gimme. Very easy fabric to choose and I am pretty sure the YM will like it.
As I said, I was disappointed I couldn’t find a cornucopia fabric. I’ll keep looking and perhaps will find one next year.
December
Theme: Christmas
Fabric: California Christmas (not the real name, but it is something like that)
YM’s Christmas Pillowcase
YM’s Christmas Pillowcase
January
I did send him a January care package.
Theme: Pokemon
Fabric: Robert Kaufman licensed from Nintendo
Pokemon Pillowcase #2
Pokemon Pillowcase #2
February
Theme: Valentine’s Day
Fabric: Moda
Valentine’s College PillowcaseValentine’s College Pillowcase
I really wanted to send him a Valentine’s themed package, so I made a Valentine’s pillowcase and will send it off towards the end of the month. I think the grey (Julie’s suggestion) makes it not too sweet. The color is heading towards pinky red. The original theme below will have to carry over to another month or end up as a gift for one of the nephews.
March
Theme: St. Patrick’s Day?
Fabric: ?
I was lazy and too cheap to buy St. Patrick’s Day fabric, so he didn’t get a pillowcase in March. It’s an opportunity for next year.
April
I ended up sending him a Viewmaster pillowcase that I had made from Cotton and Steel fabrics with his Easter box. The Easter fabrics were all too sweet, pastel and cutesy.
I still have the Angry Birds fabric. I’ll have to see what I do with that. It could end up as a donation quilt. The YM didn’t seem very excited about the motif, so that might be the best use.
While I may not do an official pillowcase tally again, since I have no plans for making more pillowcases, I have some ideas for pillowcases as gifts and will show you those. I am particularly interested in making pillowcases for a couple of the YM’s friends and for two of my nephews. I went and visited the nephews and they have their Christmas pillowcases on their bed. That is a sure sign they could use more.
Along with Flowerburst, I also got back this quilt, which I wish I had called Cityscape. It really does look like a cityscape.
Cityscape- back from the quilter
I have sewn on the binding. I worked at sewing one whole side per evening so the binding process only took me about 8 hours. The quilt is 82″ x 84″ so quite a bit of work. I used a Kona solid for the back and the binding and it was a pain. The needle doesn’t slide through that fabric like I think it should. I MUST remember that.
Cityscape – detail
The red is the background and I had Colleen think of it as a sky and put clouds in it. She did four different types of clouds in the four quadrants. I think of it as the four seasons.
Cityscape – detail
The black and grey are more like buildings, so she did more geometric quilting in those areas.
