This was another pattern from All People Quilt called Grab Bag. We were invited to a party on Sunday night. I whipped one up to bring to the guest of honor. I have wanted to test this pattern, so it seemed like a good opportunity.

I struggled a bit with some of the directions, especially the last few dealing with the handle finishing. Eventually I figured out what they were trying to tell me, but not without a fair amount of ripping. It was a good exercise in patience for me. I am sure companies like All People Quilt struggle with making the directions short AND easy to understand. For my part, I am glad for some of these free patterns.

I used an old large flower print for the outside and a Marimekko for the lining.

There are two major changes, and one minor change, that I would make on future Grab Bags:

1. I used regular batting like I use for quilts. I wouldn’t do that again. It makes it puffy, which is sort of cool, but I don’t like the fact that it doesn’t drape very well. I would like to try an interfacing to see how that drapes. I see experimentation with interfacing in my future. My other idea is to only put the batting on the bag part.
2. I would also make the inside just a bit smaller than the outside. The directions say to use the same pattern piece. It is fine (and much easier to write a pattern, I am guessing), but the bottom of the lining bunches up inside the bag. Not much, but enough to not look very professional.
3. The pockets are an odd size as well. I would make them a tiny bit larger, heightwise.

Above is a view of the inside. You can see a bit of the pockets and the Marimekko print.

I am pleased to have tried two new bag patterns. I think it  has allowed me to feel sufficiently successful and warmed up to try the Anna Maria Horner Multi-tasker tote, I discussed in yesterday’s post.

As you know, I have been thinking of branching out from the Eco Market Tote bag pattern that I have a been using for the past 1.5 years. I saw the Over the Top bag in a recent issue of Quilts & More magazine. That mag is on Facebook, so I get more notifications about what they have going. I saw their promotion for Quarterly Challenges, which reminded me of this bag. A couple of things came together, including watching their little tips video, so I downloaded the pattern last Friday and made the bag, mostly, on Saturday.

I am pleased with the way it came out.  It is the perfect size for a small handwork project tote. As with all things I sew from a pattern, I found that the first piece is really a test piece. I rely heavily on TFQ and her garment sewing experience when it comes to 3D projects, so deciphering this one alone was a challenge.

There were a few things I didn’t really understand in the pattern and, thus, skipped. I don’t see that it made much difference in the long run. There were some things that the pattern said to do that I would do differently a second time. I would add more stiffness to the bottom, perhaps something like Timtex.  The pattern says to sew only to the dots, which are about 1/4″ away from the edge. This makes sense for the bottom seams. It is necessary in order to put the Y seams together. It isn’t necessary on the top of the bag and actually turned out to be a pain. since the top seams weren’t crossed by another machine stitched seam, they started to come apart after I had the bag mostly together.  I ended up hand stitching the tops of the seams.

I think that this pattern has a lot of opportunities for embellishment, which could be fun. I keep thinking of a picture I saw in either thr3fold journal or Quilting Arts, where Laura Kemshall did a beaded edging on one of her bags.

In anticipation of loving this pattern, I bought enough magnetic clasps to make 4 bags total. After making it, however, I am not sure whether or not I will make any more. In some ways I want to make the bag again, so I can perfectmy construction techniques. On the other hand, I don’t think they style and size would be that useful for me, so I am not sure I want to have a bunch of them hanging around the house. They may, however, make nice gifts.

As you may remember, I bought some fabric at Always Quilting on the day I went to longarm.

After finishing the Clear tote, I looked around for my next project. I had tote bags on the mind, so out came the fabric and off I went.

I cut out two totes. This is the one where the main outside part of the bag is made with the flower print from the Ginger Blossom line by Sandi Henderson. I have used the stripe fabric from the same line for the accents and the lining [inside].

One GREAT thing about this project, aside from geting a new tote bag out of the work, was that I learned to use the button hole function on the Jem. It is much easier to use than the button hole function on the 9000. Now I don’t have to go to Seattle in order to make button holes! TFQ’s machine makes GREAT button holes. The Jem button holes will be a suitable facsimile, not as good as going to Seattle, but suitable.

I have enough of the stripe to make another bag. It is already cut out, but I didn’t do very well making two bags at once, so I just cut both out and lined them. Once that was done I limited myself to sewing one at a time. I’ll sew the other one this weekend.

I also have some blue flowery fabric that I bought for a tote. Perhaps I will get that done as well. It feels like a good time to make tote bags. TFQ asked me if I was still using the Favorite Things Eco Market tote pattern. I am, but she made me think that, perhaps, I should dig out those other tote patterns I have purchased over the past year and try one of them out. I really want to try the Liesel tote. I am a really big chicken when it comes to 3D things, so I’ll have to gear up.

I was at Pacific Fabrics yesterday and saw this great bag from K & C Company and Amy Butler. It is called the Creativity Bag and says it was designed for scrapbooking.

TFQ and I liked it because of the interior dividers. I don’t think I would want to carry it around all the time, but it would make a nice travel bag. Frankly, I would just like to try to make one. Either the design or the fabric is licensed, so, after discussing with TFQ, we are skeptical that they are also selling a pattern. It seems like they would just want to sell the complete bag. I’ll have to look carefully, though, on the Web to be sure.

TFQ found a pattern she bought several years ago, which is similar. It has the dividers inside, but doesn’t have a really good variety of photos of different angles.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I bought fabric to make a bag for my SIL for a gift.

TFQ and I were emailing back and forth about the EMT bags and she mentioned an easier way to make the straps. The method she found on another pattern has you make them quadruple the size of the finished strap, fold in half, open, fold each raw edge towards the middle and press. I used this method for making straps for my latest bag (above) and after about an hour of work I am ready to apply the large outside pocket and sew the bags together. The straps are on the outside, the pockets are positioned. TFQ’s method, while using more fabric, made the process amazingly fast. I didn’t think that the process explained on the pattern was terrible, but making the straps was terrible and this is much better. I think I will have time to make a couple of other bags for people I will visit this summer. YAY!

This is a good example of why collaboration is so important. As you can see, I have made a lot of progress on the project.