Sewing Project - ReUsable Bag - Bright Big Ones

I bought a piece of polyester fabric on Friday that I thought would make 3 bags. I just loved the bright colors and was quite sure I have bias tape that would work.

Sure enough, I had yellow, orange and green. Brown would have worked too. 

It was a nice change to sew with nice colors rather than the beige, grey, tan ones I have made in recent days.

I decided to maximize the use of the fabric so the bags finished are a bit bigger than the ones I have made so far.

Measurements: Overall height = 24", width = 24 inches and the bag itself is 17 inches tall. 

This fabric was like the other patterned polyester fabric so it frayed easily.  It feels really nice and irons beautifully.

The first one got yellow bias tape with an orange button and a white elastic.

The next one got orange bias tape with a light green button.

And the third got green bias tape with a yellow button and white elastic.

These will perkup the full basket of folded bags I have made this month.

Great to get 3 bags done today!

There they are all folded ready to join the rest in the basket.  It is overflowing with about 15 bags.

I have enough bias tape to make about 12 more then I can get rid of the rick rack that also lives in that box and it will be another empty box to add to the result of de-cluttering.

I have decided to keep the patterned polyester one with turquoise bias tape for myself.

Card - Welcome Back

I made this card for a lady who has been away from work for a long time.  She has been battling for her life and has survived.

I am so glad to see her back at work.

I started with a Really Rust A2 card base and added 2 pieces of paste paper that I made a long time ago. The one on the left worked with the rusty color really well and the one on the right provide nice contrast.

I added a piece of Soft Suede ribbon wrapped around this layer and taped the ends to the back.   I adhered the whole piece to the card front with double sided tape. 

The greeting was adhered with 3D foam tape over the ribbon and overlap in the decorative pieces of paste paper.

A quarter sheet insert and beige envelope finished it off. 

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I've been waiting for this happiness since I returned the Sunrise Stained Glass Art piece of mine to the window in the dining room.

One day this week the sun was shining brightly despite the temperatures this week.

This is the image on the wall in the living room being created by the stained glass piece in the dining room window.  This is exactly what I was hoping to achieve with this piece of art.  Blissfully happy with this.

The dried flower arrangement are the left overs from the bouquet for Mom's passing in January.  The leaves have dried very nicely, the baby's breath is good, the freesias are slowly falling off but that is okay.

I am back to my regular areobics routine along with the exercises from the physiotherapist.  I expect had I got back into my regular routine this fall I would not had the problems I experienced with my knee but such is life.

What I have learned is that you can not store up fitness.  It is something you have to do regularly or you just lose it.  

I am grateful the lesson was not more painful than it was.  From January 6th to February 25 I am back to about 95% on both the knee and the back.  I spend 1 hour a day between areobics and strength building exercises.

It is good to being feeling myself again.

Yes, it was a cold one again this week.  It has to end sometime.

I have stayed in most of the week. I did have a few commitments I had to do but in little sprints it was okay.

This little and mighty machine came to live at my house this week.  I picked it up from its service on Thursday.

I will be doing an in depth post on this machine later.

I had a conversation with my niece a while back who is a bargain hunter and thrift store shopper.  She had purchased this one and as she had 2 others this one was up for grabs.

With my recent sewing projects one of these will come in very handy for my unPaperTowel project.

I want to make some reusable make up remover pads as well.

I have to get new thread into it before I can use it so that is the next thing.

Bring Her Home by David Bell is a book I finished early in the week. 

This was quite a thriller of a story with a few tense moments and a couple of turns which one is not expecting.

The 2 teenage girls Summer and Haley are missing.  The search finds one girl severely beaten and just barely alive and one dead.  They had been looking for 2 girls and 2 appeared so it was assumed they were the ones being sought.  

Later, we discover another girl was involved and parents grieving received a shock and now there is still one girl missing.

Bill Price, a recent widower, is looking for his daughter Summer.  Tiny clues start adding up to behaviors he could not have anticipated his daughter would have engaged in.  Summer is grieving the loss of her mother.   It was a very good book.

I made a trip to the ReUse Center on Friday and found some goodies.

Some quilted fabric for my sister who has been making casserole carriers. 

This tiny blown glass snowman is just the cutest. No chips at all.

From the plastic I collected I want to make toggles for the bags to wash make up remover pads in.  They need to be plastic because they will go in the laundry.  They are small pieces so it was recommended that they be washed in a laundry bag.  

The cardboard rolls are for the UnPaperTowel project. 

The piece of embroidery is a huge piece of linen.  Yes I checked with a burn test.  I would like to make use of the stitched segment in some what but not sure yet what.  Can it be incorporated into a blanket?  Maybe. There is 2 meters so the other half from the stitch segment would make nice dish towels.  We shall see. 

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks follows the tried and true formula for another successful story. His male are really good guys.

Logon Thibault find a photograph while he is on tour in Iraq.  The photo is a beautiful girl with a ferris wheel, 3 large pines and 3 marines in the background.  He experiences getting out of some pretty tight situations alive during his time with the marines. His best friend Victor believes the photo is a good luck charm that is keeping him alive.  After their tour is over and they are back in the USA they get together after a few years of trying to piece their lives back together after seeing combat. Victor suggests that Logan try to find the girl and thank her for keeping him safe. 

Logan finds the girl after a very long walk but does not disclose the reason he has arrived in Hampton.  He gets a job, they fall in love and then disaster strikes and the things he hid come to light.  It does not go well with the girls and he gets ready to head out of town once again.  Through a difficult situation he redeems himself in her eyes.  And as always they live happily ever after. 

How To: ReUsable Bag - Folding Instructions

 
There are many ways to fold these reusable shopping bags but I thought I would share what I have found to be the easiest in my opinion.

You can click on the tag ReUsable Bag on this post to see all the bags I have made. 

Sewing Project - ReUsable Bags - 2 more shorter ones

These are a very similar size to the California King ones I made earlier. Overall height 20" T x 19.5W - bag  is 13" D.

I brought home some taupe microfiber fabric home from my sister's on Saturday that had been in my Mom's stash.  There was enough to make to 2 bags I thought.

It was very nice weight and I just had to assess the size of the piece and figure out what I needed.

There are some left overs which I have no idea what I will do with it.  The cut outs from all these bags are starting to pile up.

These bags do fold up to a reasonable size.  They would not fit in my purse but they would work for a lot of places.

I hope to find a few nice patterned microfiber fabric.  Doing these plain ones is getting boring.   I likely have enough bias tape to about 5-7 more.

I have started tacking the elastic to the front of the bag with a bit of stitching before I add the bias tape.  It helps to keep in place.

Means that I don't have to manage 2 things at once.

The button hides the overlap of the bias tape which works well.  Hand sewing the button can  be challenging because there are 2 layers of bias tape and the elastic in that spot.

It is working out alright.

This bag is another short and wide one.  

I used dark brown bias tape, black elastic and a brown button on this bag.

The bias tape makes this go really fast. I don't need to pin or anything.  Just open the tape, slip the edge of the bag inside and top stitch the edge. Works really fast but just quite costly.

This is the package of double fold bias tape in dark brown which I used on the bag above.\

Check out the price! It is $1.00 when the current price is now $3.30.  I wonder how old that package is?  70's?   Who knows!

I am starting to have a little basket full of these bags.

Right now the plan is to donate them.

I will bring them to show the girls at quilting on Monday.

Sewing Project - Patterned Polyester - Large Bag

When I was out shopping with my sister on the weekend I found this lone pillowcase and these nice colors - Turquoise, lime green and grey and a beautiful pinwheel pattern. It was an impulsive decision to purchase it.  Big spender at .50 cents.

This pillow case is made of polyester and is not microfiber.  It is quite thin.  It did not have a wide band at the top like most pillowcases do so that gave me more fabric to work with. 

It was constructed differently as well in that it was folded on one side so there were seams on one side and the bottom.  I like to have a fold at the bottom which I think is stronger.

I reinforced the seams with another of my own. I decided to add a boxed bottom since I had lots of fabric to work with. This also allowed for more reinforcement to the bottom of the bag.

I chose some turquoise bias tape, a turquoise button and black elastic for this bag.

Still working with the medium grey thread which was great.  I have gone through one bobbin and I have a cone of thread so I am good to go for a while yet.

I did have to cut off some of the length at the top otherwise the bag would have been to tall and skinny.

Finished it measures 24" tall x 19.5" wide.  The bag part is 16.5 inches deep. 

I was toying with making a bag to store it since I had cut off some fabric but stuck to the tried and true method.

Despite being bigger I think it makes an overall smaller package when rolled up. 

So a bigger bag in a smaller package and it's pretty may be winner.

The package of bias tape for this bag was prices a $1.50 so an older one for sure.

The fabric as very much inclined to fray so that was a bit of a challenge. Also, it was much more susceptible to a hot iron so I have to be very careful to keep the temperature down.

Getting the cut edges encased quickly was quite important.  

Update: I am keeping this one for my own ReUsable Bag.  I love the pattern, the colors and I brought 14 books home in it the other day so it is strong as well. 

Sylvia's Simple Shots

 As women we need to pay attention how our body is feeling.  Symptoms are often ignored or not considered as heart symptoms.  Back pain is common in women having a heart attack.  I wore red to our first meeting in 3 years of the quilting group.

I finished this book recently Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton.  It is a collection of short stories with her famous female investigator - Kinsey Millhone.  

As the author puts it - it is a challenge to set up the characters, the crime and solve it in a short story.

A Little Missionary Work was my favorite of these short stories.

There is some autobiography information on Sue Grafton's early growing up years which was difficult with alcoholic parents and all the comes with that.

It was a nice change of pace with Kinsey and enjoyed the stories.

If you are a fan of Kinsey it is definitely worth a read.

I headed out to the north end drugstore because my local one did not have any inventory of these bands. With the increase in the amount of leg and arm exercises I have been doing I needed some bands in different tension strength.  I am using the blue one for some leg exercises.

I was lucky to have decaf tea on sale - 2 boxes for $10.00 which a savings of $6 so I picked a couple of those as well.  I have not been able to get this tea at my regular grocery store since before Christmas. 

I finally did a Google search and my drugstore carries it.  I am there regularly so I will just keep an eye for the sale again.

I underwent a vertigo assessment by my physiotherapist this week.   I had about 10 days of bad dizziness around mid January. It started right after my big pain in my knee. I felt it was musculoskeletal and it was related to extreme tension between my shoulders.  There was a spot on the right hand side that I just could not release the pressure in that spot.  I passed the vertigo assessment.

I had a deep muscle massage which addressed the knot in the middle of my back.  That is exactly what I needed.  The pain is gone and I feel so much better.

I was also given cupping massage which felt great.

Back exercises were added to the leg ones to address the tight back muscles.

The Cat Cow yoga pose works well then I was given a deep stretch for that area which feels better now that the knot in the muscle has relaxed.

The shoulder rotation is very good.  I used pillows for my head and my knee.  

The back squeeze feels good as well.  I wrap my elastic exercise band around the door handle, wrap the two ends over and above the latch and shut the door.  Now I can pull really hard on the band and it will not let go.

I bought myself another African Violet at the garden center last week.  I am hoping to keep this one alive.  The last one was just too close to the window during the deep freeze and it succumbed to the cold.

I used to grow these in my twenties when I did not even have to try.  They sat in a large north window and bloomed and flourished.

I have set this one on the shelf near the window and hopefully just a little less light and much less cold will be the magic formula.  

I will keep an eye on it and always water it from the bottom and keep  my fingers and toes crossed.

Nice to have a bit of life in the house until spring returns.

Sewing Project - Shorter Bags

I got a California King Pillowcase in my $1 bin sale at the thrift store the other day.  These are much longer than the standard pillowcase hence more fabric.

The length of the fabric when the band is removed and then folded in half was 40 inches rather than my regular 44 inches for my standard bag.  But I get 2 bags for the price of one.

I used a bias binding left over from a quilt I made a long time ago.  There was only enough for the neck of the bag. I had been thinking of rolled hems for these bags and had done some practicing with my rolled hem foot for the sewing machine. 

I decided to try it on this bag because I really did not have any other bias tape that would match.  It went pretty well.  I have the top and side seam that I have to put through the roller so that was challenging.  Just keeping the fabric pulled to the left all the time to have enough fabric to roll is also needs constant attention.  But going slow and being careful it works quite well.  I will get better at it as I go along. 

I chose a burgundyish button and a black elastic which I cut to 6" because this bag was going to be a smaller roll than my previous ones.

The button is a good color match.  Great to keep with the grey thread.

Total height of the bag is 20" the height of the bag itself is 13" and the width is 19.5 inches.

The side edges had to be straightened and trimmed so that did take a bit off the width. There a fold in the bottom for strength.  The seams are all enclosed so there are no raw edges on the inside of the bag.

I decided to redo the hems on the handles of this bag because too many places along the hem it had not rolled over properly.  

I am not sure if it is practice but I will try some more hems on scraps and see how it goes.

I was to visit my sister on Saturday and she gave me some bias tape that would so the 2 handles.

So now the bag will be acceptable for donation.

This is the second short bag made with the California King pillowcase.

I chose Hunter green bias tape this time.  I have some very old packages with prices like 95 cents but this one is quite new at $2.45.  Currently, they are $3.30 each which does one bag with a bit leftover.  That is quite a bit for each bag. I would like to find something more neutral and less costly.

It is easy to mark the center of the bag to align the elastic and the button.

Fold the bag in half and just press the center with the iron.  It can easily be ironed out when you are finished.

The button came from my sisters as well.  Again, going with neutral would help with things a bit.  She gave a couple of clear buttons that come off duvet covers. They will work with any color bag.

The narrow elastic is 6" long and I did remember to sew it in when I put the bias tape this time instead of doing it afterwards.  Good Job!

Sewing Project - Pillowcase Re-Usable Bag

The bias tape on the center is a nice lavenderish color and the twill tape I used was a good color match but narrower than the bias tape. The button was a great match as well.  I used grey thread on this bag.

I made another reusable bag.  This time with a different starting point.When I was at the thrift store the other day they had pillowcases in a bin for $1 each. Some I got for $.50 each. I chose a few microfiber ones and brought them home.  I liked this one because of the pattern in the fabric. 

The advantage is that the side seams and the folded bottom are already done for you. The side seams were nicely serged so totally ready to go. I just checked to make sure they were still intact. I cut the band at the top of pillowcase off. I placed the cutting pattern near the top edge where I had cut opposite the folded bottom edge.  I did add an inch because now I will have to stitch the seam at the top of my handles.  Again, I created finished seams. I chose a camouflage twill tape for the center of the bag and chocolate brown twill tape around the sides of the handles.  

This makes a bigger bag because the width of the pillowcase is wider than the ones I made earlier. The overall height of the bag from top of handles to bottom is 23.5".  The width is 20.5 inches and the measurement from the bottom of the handles to the bottom of bag is 16 inches.

I added a beige button with some narrow black elastic to keep it rolled up. 

As you can see it folded up it is still quite big but it will hold more stuff.

It takes all kinds to make the world go round so I am happy with the result because it is less work and time. 

The microfiber fabric in this pillowcase is pure luxurious feeling. Because I am using opened packages of bias tape sometimes I miscalculate if I have enough.  On this one I thought I did not have enough wide stuff so I put narrow twill tape on the outside of the handles and later realized I would have had enough.  Not undoing the seams.

I used a white elastic from a face mask but I am not sure how long it will last.  The elastic is quite soft and may need to be shorten over time. Glad I did not buy any of this elastic.

I offset the button and elastic because the bag was wider than the previous ones.  It needs more folds to get it narrow enough to be held in place by the elastic. It means though that it will hold more stuff.

The seams again on this one are at the top of the handles and are completely finished with no raw edges showing.

The fold on the bottom means you will not have seams wearing out on the bottom.Really like this one. 

Measurements: Total height is 24" T x bag is 16" T x 21" W

This microfiber fabric is thinner than the previous one.  A bit of a darker grey. This was by Utopia Bedding.  It was nice to keep the thread the same for this bag.

I chose this jade green color of bias tape but it was very narrow.  I had to iron it in half before I sewed it in.   I had to be very careful that I caught both sides the margin for error was very small. 

I will be glad to use up the stash of bias tape but the irregularity of the stuff I have creates challenges.  

Having tape in the neutral color would be helpful but it likely would make for a more boring bag. Would that be a bad thing?  It is really a utilitarian object.  Pretty is nice.

I think this button was a decent match to the bias tape and the black narrow elastic was better than white.

Again this one is quite big and needs extra folds to get it into a decent size for the elastic.

Measurement from top of handles to bottom is 24 inches, the bag itself is 15.5" tall and the bag is 20 inches wide.

With the less sewing because of the sides and bottoms already done these went pretty fast to make.  To donate, less time is better.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I made Raspberry Bavarian to remind me of my wonderful Mom.  This was my favorite of the desserts she made with the raspberries in her garden patch. Used frozen berries.

I did grate a bit of dark chocolate on top and added a Simple Pleasures Cranberry and Citrus cookie.

You can find the recipe in this post - Raspberry Bavarian.  

I miss her a lot!

On Monday, I walked to Fabric Land while my car was at the dealership for services.  It was great to have decent weather I could walk 20 minutes.

I needed sewing machine needles because I broke a couple working on my ReUsable bags.  While I was there I came across these Bobbin Mates which help to keep the spool of thread with the matching bobbin. The price was good for 12.  I would use these for my regular thread that I use often - white, black, grey, navy and brown maybe. 

They work great.

Fabric Land was having a huge sale on mask elastic.  This is perfect for the elastic on my ReUsable Bags so considering it was 70% off I bought 10 yards of each color - black and white.  

I had worked out that I could use the elastics off disposable masks which easily break and I had a few in my stash that I had not thrown away.

That elastic was for sale at the fabric store as well but I thought is narrow stuff would be more versatile and stronger in the long run.

It was a week of doctor visits, blood work, xrays, ECGs, IV lines and a ride in an ambulance with a visit to Emergency. Answering a lot of questions and trying to remember what happened when.  It's been a bit of a time since Jan 6th and I hope the worse is over.  I still have specialist appointments to come.

The results were negative and I was lucky to have my aunt give me a ride home.

Thanks so much!

I bought a few music CDs for the hospital where Mom spent her last hours.  They gave us a big room and a CD player with a couple of CDs.  They were Mom's favorites. Fortunately, my neice was able to find stuff on line.

This is more of the type of music which we chose for Mom.

I will drop them off next time I am there.

This is a small flower vase which was Mom's.  All summer she had a small vase of garden flowers on the table.  Cosmos was one of her favorites and they are a great cut flower.

She grew Pansies, Nasturtiums, African Daisies, Impatiens, Lavetera and more I am sure.  She used carrot tops for a bit of green foliage in her bouquets. 

This is a Vintage 1960's Avon urn jar for bath product - my web research tells me.  I see that it once had a stopper.  I am not sure when Mom got it but she liked it and used it every year.

Will I ever have a cut flower garden?  Sure would like that very much.

We shall see.

I finished this book this week.  Jinnie by Josephine Cox.   I think this is my third book by this author.

It is set in England in 1963 with some events having taken place 10 years earlier.  A great story of tragic events and the love of a woman for an abandoned baby.  Sister who are polar opposites and grandmothers who step into the gap for their families.

I mostly enjoyed this book.  The grandmothers one was Sarah and the other Sally so I often confused them.  The story was all concluded in the final few pages of the book which seemed incongruous with the timeline and pace of the first 90% of the story.

Always enjoy England as a setting.  The story took some pretty steep curves at the end but all things turned out well after all.

I started back with areobics this week now that the knee is improving.

This is the easiest work out I have.  When I worked a groups of us girls would close up the board room and do this 1 mile 30 minute routine then have our lunch.

I started again with the 1 mile this week. Taking it easy but at least getting back to my life before my inactivity took a toll on my body.