Tote Bag Lady

Now that my schedule has let up and I feel like I can breathe a tiny little bit, I need to catch up some of my finished objects.

Shocking friends and family alike, for the first time maybe ever, I mailed this year's Mother's Day gift on time. At least a little bit of good came out of having a sick day at the sewing machine the weekend before.

I made a simple tote bag out of cowboy/cowgirl fabric using iron-on fleece on my outer pieces. Just for the sake of keeping track of these things, I based my bag measurements on View A from McCall's pattern 3894 and improvised the straps based on other tote bags and what size scraps I had leftover. Simple bag but fun results!

Pics to come... guess I was so excited to get it in the mail, I forgot to snap some images. That's what I get for being on time with something!

On the second version of the bag I made for a friend's birthday, I used decorator weight fabric for the exterior so I matched it with a medium weight iron-on interfacing. Both projects were made using supplies entirely from the stash, which goes to show how big the stash is if I can wake up sick on a Sunday morning and complete two items without ever changing out of my jammies!

I met Christina through a secret pal exchange awhile ago and as she was such a great pal, I wanted to send her a small thank you present. She's a great knitter and I have a sneaking suspicion that she's the kind of gal you'd want at a party... all calm and nice with her knitting until she starts telling stories about jumping out of airplanes and speeding down the road on her motorcycle. She's the only person I know who has earned the right to have something made from the great biker-skeleton-hell-raiser fabric from Alexander Henry. The whole time I was sewing the nice, well-mannered Amy Butler tote bag I kept giggling at this insane fabric. (It's probably a good thing I live alone.) I also made a matching notions bag lined with kitschy knitting fabric but again, seem to have forgotten to take a picture.

These fairly simple projects are such a fun way to let the fabric shine. I definitely see more like these in the future. There's a biiiiiiiig stash in there that needs to be toted right on out of the storage room so there may be tote bags for all for Christmas this year!