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!
