Sewing Project - Shopping Bag - Sage and Tangerine

I am finally getting to projects which have been sitting for a couple of years.  With the flood and the move I have had no time to sew. My past self had assembled all the supplies, the main fabric, the lining fabric, the accents so moving forward went pretty well. 

The tangerine floral is microfiber fabric and well as the sage lining.  I paired it with this dark green cotton polyester fabric for the accent.

I cut the fabric for the outside and lining the same size.  Once the each was sewn, I zigzagged the raw edges on both pieces even though the bag will be fully lined because the fabric was raveling quite a bit.  I assembled the bag itself by putting the outside inside the lining right sides together and sewing around leaving a gap to turn it right side out. I then turn it out and ironed it really well. I top stitched the top edge to close the gap that I had left earlier.

Now, how will I decorate this bag as it was just an envelope at this stage. I had dark green fabric which was one of the colors was in the main fabric.  I wanted to add a band at the top to help give the bag a bit of structure as microfiber fabric is quite soft. I cut a strip of green 3.5 inches wide and longer than the measurement of the bag all the way around. I wanted it to overlap on the front. I ironed a half inch seam allowance on each edge and then top stitched down along the top edge leaving about 1/4 inch of the floral fabric showing. I decided to just over lap the band and put a button in the square I created with the decorative stitching.

I made the straps very long about 42 inches long.  Again, I ironed them in half the ironed each raw edge to the middle. I then used my curvy decorative stitch down the middle and a straight seam on the open edge. When I placed the straps on I saw a space for a outside pocket.  

I cut a piece of dark green fabric 7.5 inches wide and 6 inches tall. I added a strip of the floral fabric vertically just off the center line to tie the pocket to the bag in design. I then hemmed the top edge. I then sewed the bottom edge of the pocket to the front of the bag where it will fall between the straps. I ironed the pocket right side out towards the top of the bag.

I then pin the straps over the right and left sides of the pocket so that when I top stitched the strap the pocket would be captured as well. This took a lot of detailed measuring and pinning.  Once I had it the way I wanted and sewed the front strap down.  Then, I had to duplicate the measurements on the back piece and top stitched that one down.

I hand sewed the tangerine button in the space I had made for it on the top band.  The finished size of the bag itself is 17" T x 19" W.

Sewing Project - Tea Station Mat

I made another mat for the kitchen Tea Station because they need laundering and I like to have one on the counter all the time.

The piece of woodland fabric I got at the ReUse Center a couple of weeks ago.  I tea dyed it in black tea for a couple of hours. 

I added yellow embroidery on the flowers in the print to bring the yellow from the backing piece to the front. 

I put a couple of layers of flannel in the middle.  The back piece is a cotton poly in a golden yellow leopard print.

I cut the front and flannel 7.75" x 13.75" because that was the limit of the back print.

The back print was cut 1.25 inches larger in both directions (9.00 x 15") as I will be self binding the piece.

I pinned all the layers together. With yellow thread I sewed several seams along the length to hold all the layers together. 

I then fold the extra on the back layer to the front once and the again to frame the front piece. I used a fancy stitch to sew down the binding.  Trimmed all the threads and I am done!

Sewing Project - Fold Over Wallets

 

I had a piece of RFID fabric to make 3 more wallets so I just used the scrappy fabric I made this morning and cut it up into 3 pieces.

I am happy to have gotten 3 different colored wallets.

I found some bright green cotton polyester broadcloth for the lining for the 2 on the right hand side.  The blue one on the left got a white and blue polyester fabric lining.

All of them got blue elastic.

These will be available in the Christmas Store at the Spruce Grove Art Gallery at Heavy Metal Place in December 2025.

Slow Stitching - No. 034 - Mola Inspired - Reverse Applique

Week 34 in the K3N Cloth Tales Slow Stitching Challenge - prompt - Mola Inspired Reverse Applique. This is practiced by the Guna people of Panama.

I designed my own geometric pattern and I used 4 layers of fabric.  True blue, then lime green, then royal blue and finally tangerine orange.

This was quite stiff - the top & bottom layers were poly cotton, the lime is silky and the blue is for sure polyester.

The shapes are a square, a triangle, a rectangle and a circle.

I used sewing thread to based around the edge. Found embroidery thread to match each color and outlined the shapes with running stitches.   Debated about adding additional stitches and decided against it.

Sewing Project - Picnic Placemats - QAYG Warm Colors

I sorted through my scraps this morning and gathered like colors to see if I had enough to make the front of the picnic placemat. 

I am trying to keep the pocket on the right hand side distinct from the rest of the placemat. I created the zipper pocket like an insert with the brown fabric.

I then cut a 13x13 inch square of flannel to which I sewed the various strips of fabric. 

I chose a beige cotton poly leftover for the back. 

I created ties from the same fabric.

I laid these layers facing right sides together and pinned the ties on the opposite side to the pocket.  I ran a seam all the way around leaving a space to turn it right side out. I top stitched the wavy line to define the pocket then added 2 more similar seams to quilt the 2 layers together.

I am happy with it.

Binder Cover with Journaling Bookmark

I had a visit with my sister before the snow came down again.

We discussed a lot of creative ideas and I realized that I don't have a central place to document these.  

They may or may not become full fledged completed projects but it was great to have a creative discussion.  It is important, to document the details we discussed so that they are not lost when the idea becomes a possibility.  It may be a spring board to another idea. Who knows.  

That is when I decided I needed a creative ideas journal.  She had returned to me a small binder that I had passed to her a couple of years ago that she had not used yet.  I am glad she kept it.

She sent fabric as well that is headed to the ReUse Center but I thought I should see if there was something there that would work for this project.  The big yellow flower on this fabric spoke to me.  I decided that I would use this.  I chose some beige fabric from the box which was given to me for the lining.  I cut the pieces 22" long and 10" inches tall.  The binder is 9 1/8 tall but I need some room.  I chose a 3/8 inch seam to attach these two layers which was too generous.  I did not have any fabric sticking out to create the top stitch to keep the flaps in place which would slide over the sides of the binder.  I chose to hand stitch the flaps in place with thread.  

I had an extra set of dividers which I bought at the second hand store a while back.  It may be hard to categorize the ideas but I will see how it goes.

She had created a Journaling Bookmark which I just winged the construction of.  I did have to try twice to get at least something that worked.  This means I will always have a pencil to jot notes.