African Wax Cotton Tote Bag

This is Bag No 3.

I was given this lovely African Wax Cotton as a gift, and I had a chance to make something for her daughter from it. It is a panel print so it was tricky to get something that made sense and had a nice balance of patterns in it. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Dimensions are the same as the others: 88cm x 35cm with straps 7cm x 35cm.

Another Tote Bag

A quick post to share another tote bag that I put together as a welcome gift for my Mum. The previous London Bag has got great use and is now very shabby, so a replacement was in order.

I wanted to use this tan/brown twill from my stash. I had it earmarked for a skirt, but the colour is not good. I'm not really sure why I bought it actually, probably carried away by new making in 2013/14.

I really loved Erin's applique on her plain sweatshirt and I used that idea to jazz up Mum's bag. I almost bought the same pink blossom, but went for the gold in the end. It arrived fast from eBay and the quality was great: no dud stitches or mistakes in the design.

I cut out a rectangle for the bag, 88cm by 35cm. The overall dimensions are good, but I went too high with the applique and didn't leave quite enough space at the top for a good facing. 90cm would have been a better height. Straps are 7cm wide by 35cm long.

I sewed on the applique before I made up the bag. I used couching to attach the stems, then machine sewed the leaves on, then ironed it on, then went over the flowers by hand. It took many evenings, but I found it so relaxing! There is something so meditative about sitting and making hundreds of tiny stitches in a piece of cloth. I listened to podcasts and sewed away. I wasn't under huge time pressure, and the work feels productive too. You can see the work growing, but slowly.

I do worry about the durability of the applique on something as hard wearing as a bag. I didn't stitch the flowers on to the edges of the petals, these will probably curl with use, but hopefully won't look too awful. Machine sewing them down didn't really work, the threads got tangled and they didn't look nice. It will work well enough for the bag, it's pretty at the moment, and I can start thinking about the next one in two year's time!

Costs: 
  Fabric: twill cotton, eBay, £2.87
  Decoration: applique, eBay, £3.98 
  Thread: stash, £0.00
Total: £6.85

Making a Minnie Mouse Purse

A small, cross body purse is one of my essential pieces of Mum-kit. I like having my phone handy (especially as a camera) and my wallet on me, separate from another bag with everyone's stuff in it. As part of our our Disneyland preparations, I decided I could easily make a simple Minnie purse to carry my tickets and phone.

I worked out the correct proportions of ears to head (ratio of 3:5), and that the ears are slightly elliptical. I traced off some pattern pieces and added seam allowances. I used some scraps of black knit fabric from my Karen Dress, because it has a nice texture, and I wanted it to be a bit more interesting than quilting cotton. I used quilting cotton for the reverse of the ears and the inside lining of the purse. 

I interfaced all the pieces with two layers of interfacing, and they held up well. The ears turned out beautifully and I had to attach them by hand. I made up a bow, and the loops that the strap clips attach to. I had to clip and baste the seam allowance of the bag to get the folded edge to sew all of these to. 

I kind of lost my way after that and didn't get quite the result I wanted with the main body of the bag. I joined the back of the bag to the front by machine and the zip edge by hand. At this point, the bag was too small to hold my phone. I had measured, but I think the hand sewing ran too small. I unpicked the bottom and added a wedge of fabric. This gave it the size I needed, but destroyed the circular shape it was supposed to be. I decided to live with it and attached the inside lining pieces to each other, and to the inside of the zip.

There was a large amount of hand sewing, which I did while the girls and I caught up on old Disney movies. It wasn't a total disaster, but I was disappointed that it started so promisingly and ended up so far from my original vision.

I also thought about adding an inside pocket for smaller items. This would have been useful, and I should have interfaced the bow strongly. It drooped completely with wear and spoiled the look. I used a strap from an existing bag I own. I didn't want a me-made strap to stand up to the wear it was going to get. 

I used it sporadically by the end. The zip didn't run smoothly and my phone didn't fit perfectly, so if my shorts had pockets, I preferred to use those for tickets and camera. But it was a cute accessory and I'm glad I made it. 

Fabric Tote Bag

I made this bag as a gift for my Mum, she uses a fabric bag all the time and her favourite "Elephant Bag" (because it has elephants on it, naturally) has been worn to death. There is something of a quest going on to find the right replacement for the Elephant Bag. I have thrown my hat in the ring with this as a contender.

I used twill cotton, bought on eBay from Favourite Fabrics. I used about half a meter for the bag and same for the contrast.

I used the dimensions from a couple of existing bags that I have. The blue is cut 71cm long and it wraps around the bottom so there is no seam at the base. The contrast and straps, co-incidentally, are also 71cms long. Contrast is 14cm tall, straps are 7cm wide.

I made the blue lower part first, I used French seams for the side seams. Then cut the white fabric to match the dimensions and sewed it in a loop. I attached it to the blue with a flat felled seam. My first ever! It wasn't too bad, but my machine, and the straightness of my seam struggled with all that thickness of fabric. But I like the extra strength, and the fact that there are no raw edges anywhere on this bag.

I love the little crosses where the straps attach to the bag. I feel like it makes it look just like a "real" bag!

Total cost: £6.33. This is quite a bit more than you expect to pay for a fabric tote in a store, but I think it looks more like a handbag than a shopping bag.

The real question is: will the Elephant Bag finally be consigned to the scrap bag in the sky?