Sewing bag makes

Ok so now I have a fantastic new sewing machine (and no real clue as to how to use it!) I needed to find something to make with it.

As I said in my last post, I did order the Great British Sewing Bee book along with my machine to give me a few ideas but I think that perhaps going straight from making an apron out of a shirt - and lets face it not really changing too much of the basic shirt its-self to make this - to making something like a dress could be a bit too big of a step for me.

So again, what else to do but to hunt the internet...

...I found this amazing sewing bag pattern online and for free - please find the link to the pattern here

I decided that this didn't look too tricky for a first project and set to work using some of the fat quarters that I had received in one of the Crafty Creatives boxes that I used to receive on a monthly basis.

I chose these two and a stripy red and white as I felt that they worked the best together and I absolutely LOVE the owl-y fabric so this had to be the most visible on the outside of the bag. I chose the stripy red material for the inside as I hoped that this would be the easiest fabric to line up and make the square - I am not sure really if this did make it easier at all of just more obvious when it wasn't quite straight!

This was a lovely project to start with for the first use of my first ever (proper) sewing machine - it now means that I have somewhere to keep all of my pretty new threads, scissors etc.

I was so pleased with the final result that I showed a few people how it had turned out and my Mother-in-Law especially loved it!. I decided to make her one as well as it is a nice project to practice with. She seems really pleased with hers as well. She sent me this photo of the final product all filled up with all of her sewing bits and pieces.

The materials that we chose for her bag were again a couple of fat quarters that I had bought and the lining came from an old shirt donated by my Father-in-law. Another stripy lining so again a little bit tricky to make sure that it was lined up all correctly but I think it turned out ok in the end. The only error that I made with making this bag is that when I was cutting the fabric for the pockets around the edge of the bag I made one of the strips slightly shorter than the other. This piece of fabric must have also not been quite as wide as a normal fat quarter as I wasn't able to quite make the pockets as tall as they should have been - again one is slightly shorter than the other.

The shortened length of the pocket on one side makes a nice little pocket for scissors to be kept in or any other small/flat item.

I do like the way that both of these have turned out and really enjoyed making them. I can't believe how differently they both came out really as they were made following the same pattern (with a few of my own adaptations). These would be really great fun to keep making potentially as gifts and in different fabrics. I would like at some point also to try to enlarge the pattern and make this again. I would need a few more fat quarters and, if I wanted to main components of the bag to match then these would need to be in the same designs but I think that this would be do-able - the trickiest might be getting a piece long enough to make the pockets (as the pleated pocket did use a full length of fat quarter) or joining two along the edge.

Hmmm...I will have to think about it. It might also be nice at some point to add a fastening to the bag, some sort of cover over the open top possibly. Something to decide if I make this again.

I hope that you are all having a fabulous day - keep on crafting. See you soon for the next instalment.