Quilted Bag + Mini Quilt Block Charm

Summer is here and in full swing, I bet many of you are going places; local or far from home vacations. One of the things that is always nice and useful is a large bag you can throw things in and take it everywhere you go. I decided to do a tutorial of such a bag using fabrics designed by Amy from Diary of a Quilter. Sunny Side Avenue is her second fabric line from Riley Blake Designs. Hop over and check them out!

I decided to use these fabrics from her line for this project.

So, here is what you need:

*You will need

Two different green fabrics --- 1/2 yard each

Two different Blue fabrics --- one 1/3 yard, the other one 1 yard

Batting and muslin

Matching thread


How to

1. Cut 3 - 3"strips from each one of the fabrics and lay them out in the order you want. Once you have decided, sew them together. Open the seam and press with an iron.

2. Once you finished piecing 7 to 8 strips together, cut out 3" strips diagonally. To figure out the first line, I used the 30 degree angle line of the cutting tool and marked it with a pencil and started cutting.

3. Lay all the diagonal strips out to see the design before piecing them together. Once you are done piecing, it will look like this:

Open the seam and press with iron.

4. Cut off the ends. It is best to match the fabrics on both sides, so when you sew them together, the half diamond becomes one and gives a nicer finish.

5. Layer the muslin, cotton batting and pieced top together and baste. I used safety pins to secured them.

6. I can't tell you enough how much I love my new Aria sewing machine from Babylock. I should have a post just dedicated for this quilting feature someday! Anyways... I just did straight stitches on both sides of the seam. Cut off the excess.

7. Fold the quilted fabric in half right sides together. Sew the sides.

8. Create boxed bottom. Pinch the bottom corner and draw a 5" line (2 1/2" on one side of the seam and 2 1/2" seam on the other) and sew.

9. Sew liner. Cut 18 1/2" x 30" rectangle out of the blue fabric that is 1 yard. Also, cut 6" x 8" rectangle to create a pocket. Fold both sides and the bottom of the fabric, press with iron and fold the top twice 1/2" each time and sew. Sew it on to the large fabric. Sew the large fabric to make the liner in the same manner as you sewed the outer bag.

10. Sew handles. Cut 3" x 20 1/2" strips out of the left over strips you have already pieced to create the bag. I added fusible interfacing to strengthen the handle. Fold the fabric in half right sides together and sew. Turn inside out, press with iron. Using 1/8" seam stitch both sides.

11. Put the outer bag, liner and handles together and pin. Leaving a 4"opening, sew all around the top. Turn the fabric inside out, press with iron and give a good top stitch to finished it off.

I just gave quick steps for how I made this bag. If you are new to sewing and need more detailed instructions, you can visit my other tutorials such as She Carries Flowers or Reversable Crossbody Bag.

I made a mini quilt block to accessorize the bag... the idea popped in my head and I just couldn't resist! I am planning on doing a tutorials for this in the near future, stay tuned!

I am going to have a very exciting (and a little scary because this is a bit of out of my comfort zone...) week and I am going to let you know in a future post. Happy Summer everyone!

Re-purpose Tutorial~ Mexican Dress to Tote Bag

Several months ago, I found this beautiful Mexican dress at a thrift store (It was one of the items I was looking out for). I was so excited and started to examine it, then I found some ripped seams and stains that may not come off. Here was the moment of truth... Should I buy it or not... the embroidery was too beautiful to pass up, so I decided to get it. The wheels in my head were already turning and last week I finally made it happen.

I cut the dress in half... There was no turning back at this point! Because of how your dress might be a different size than mine and also Mexican dresses are not made too precisely (the seams are raw and often times uneven in many areas), I am not going to give you exact measurements in this tutorial. I will give some numbers for you to have an idea and you can use that to apply to your re-purpose project.

Ok, let me go over the list of things you will need for this project.

{You will need}

Mexican dress
Lining fabric
Fusible interfacing (medium to thick, according to your preference)
Matching thread
Magnetic closure
Paper

{How to}

1. Just as we started before the material list, cut the dress in half(set the bottom half aside) and unpick the sleeves. Decide on where to cut the dress in half; this depends on how deep/shallow you want to make the bag and the embroidery design.

2. Cut the shoulders and trim the sides. The goal for these steps are to make the front/back and left/right unevenness as even as possible.

3. Lay the dress piece on the large piece of paper and trace to create a pattern for the lining. If you want to trace it directly onto the lining fabric, that is fine too.

4. Fuse the lining piece onto the fusible interfacing according to the manufacturer's instruction. To add magnet closure, fold the lined fabric in half vertically to find the center. Then measure 1 1/4" from the top seam. Mark with pencil or erasable marker. Follow the instruction of the package to add the magnet.

5. Put together the main fabrics right sides together. Measure 3 1/2" from what used to be the shoulder line and mark with pencil on both sides; That is the starting/stopping point when you are sewing to make the bag. This way your bag will have bigger opening and it will be easier to find things. Sew. Also, sew the bottom corners to create the boxed bottom. You can find how to make the boxed bottom on the post I did in the past.

6. Sew the lining piece same as in step 5.

7. Make handles. Cut 2 - 4" x 15" strips off the bottom half of the dress. Also cut 2 - 1/2"x 15" of fusible interfacing. Fold the fabric strips in half right sides together and fuse the interfacing as pictured. Sew on the side, turn the tube inside out and press with an iron. Sew Both sides with 1/8" seam and two more lines in between.

8.Put together the outer bag and lining right sides together, then place the handles in the middle of those two layers and pin. Leaving 4" of opening, sew all around it. Turn the bag inside out and press the opening with the iron and pin. Top stitch to finish it off.

Now, it is ready to enjoy!

Oh! You might be wondering what happen to the rest of the dress... I made that into a pillow with some pom-poms. It is sitting pretty in my house. :)

Wool Flower Bouquet Bag

Hello everyone! I am so excited for the chance to work with beautiful wool by Penny Rose Fabric. I made them into wool felt first, then I was ready to make something fun with them...

Look at these beauties!

Here are the supplies to make the wool flower bouquet bag:

{You will need}

Print out the flower petals and leaves from the pdf file.

Blue Wool 36" (width of the wool) x 16" long after felting process(remember, when you do the felting process, wool shrinks)
Cream, pink, red,Brown, green, dark green Wool
Cotton fabric for lining if you decided to do so
Matching thread for the blue wool for your sewing machine
DMC floss -- Cream, green

{How to make the bag}

1. Fold the blue wool in half and trim off the top and the bottom to make it 15" long. Then, cut 3" wide strips on the side to make handles later.

2. To make the honeycomb smocking, take the bigger blue wool piece and measure 2" from the bottom and draw a line all the way across. Fold the fabric exactly on the line and sew 1/8" from the folded line. Then, draw 7 lines 1" apart parallel to the first sewn line. Fold the fabric on the lines, sew and repeat the process to make 8 sewn lines.

3. Measure 1/2" from both sides: that will be your seam to sew them together later. From that line measure and mark every 2"on the very bottom sewn line. Where you marked the bottom line, sew the bottom line to the sewn line above it. Do the same with the 2nd and 3rd line but offset them from the bottom line by an inch. Repeat this pattern as you move up doing the 3rd and 4th line, then the 4th and 5th line and so on until all eight lines are connected.

4.Pin one side of the wool onto the ironing board then stretch the wool a bit. Press with the iron to set the texture you made: make sure your iron is set to wool.

5. Fold the wool right sides together and sew on the side and the bottom with 1/2" seam. Make sure all the sewn lines on the bottom match up. Open and press the seams. Sew the lines together on the seam to repeat the honeycomb smocking pattern on the side.

6. Fold the bottom corners to make a boxed bottom. Make sure the seams line up perfectly for a nice finish. The line measures 1" from both ends to the middle, so it is 2" long when it's finished. Do the same to the other bottom corner.

7. Fold 3" x 15" strips. Bring both long edges to the middle, press with the iron and fold it in half, then press with the iron again. Sew the seam with 1/8" to 1/4" seam.

8. I will not go over the steps to make the liner, but if you decide to do so, make the same size bag with cotton fabric. Make a boxed bottom too, so it will line up and fit nicely with the wool bag.

9. Put together the wool bag and the liner right sides together. Measure 3 1/2" from both edges and slide in the handle up side down and pin all around. Leave 4" opening for turning; sew all the way around. Turn the fabric inside out and fold the opening edges and pin.

10. Sew all around it with 1/8" seam.

{How to make the flowers}

* Cream flower

1.Cut 10 cream petals, 1--- 1 1/4" Brown circle (clip all around it), 1--- 1/2" dark green circle

2. Pinch the bottom and sew.

3. Sew 5 petals together. Make one more of this and layer them together. Make sure the bottom layer flower petals are showing from between the flower petals on the top layer.

4. Add Brown and dark green circles on top of the flower and stitch some french knots in the middle. Make two flowers.

*Red flower

1. Cut 4 1/2" circle.

2. Start cutting from the middle in a continuous arch pattern.

3. Start rolling from the middle and keep rolling to make a nice flower shape. Stitch the back so it won't come undone. Make three flowers.

*Pink flower

1. Cut 1 1/2" x 4" strips. Fold it in half and make cuts from one side to the other side.

2. Start rolling it from one side to the end. Stitch the back so it doesn't come undone.

*Leaves

Cut out 19 leaves from green and 5 leaves from dark green.

{Assembly}

1. Cut 1--- 1/4" x 2 1/2" stem and 2--- 1/4"x 4" stems and lay them out with the green leaves. Stitch them up to the bag with DMC floss.

2. Sew cream flowers to the bag. These will be the main focus, it is important to find the right balance.

3. Stitch the dark green leaves.

4. Sew red flowers on to the bag.

5. Sew pink flowers to the bag. This helps to balance things out or to hide odd openings too. With cream color DMC floss stitch groups of french knots in a few places.

Then all you need to do is to enjoy the bag!

I can't get enough of the honeycomb smocking!

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial today! :)