Making bags and interesting animal companions

Hello.  The weather is rather warm today, assisted admirably by my internal furnace.  Does anyone else have an furnace working overtime?    I'll move on to other more pleasant things like making bags to organise my suitcase for next years holiday. I started my bag making frenzy in this post

where I made a bag with a zipper to put my smalls in.  Since then I made a laundry bag, some shoe bags, a bag for delicate clothing, (i.e. where the fabric pulls on anything) and a bag for my socks. 

Laundry bag

It's a simple drawstring bag and I applied HeatnBond iron-on vinyl to waterproof the fabric.  Letty  suggested I use oilcloth but I couldn't find any in a fabric I liked.  The fabric was easy to sew with the vinyl ironed on.

This shoebag was also made with HeatnBond applied to the fabric. 

There's enough room in this shoe bag for my thongs (flip flops) and jiffy slippers.

Bag for delicates.

 I had intended using studs for the closure on this bag but when I tried to punch them with the special tool they didn't turn out.  Grrrr.  I've used velcro instead.

The blue and mauve bag on top is for my socks.

I've yet to make some more bags.  One for scarves and belts and one for my hairdryer, brush, comb and hair clips.  I just don't want to have all these things rolling around in my suitcase.

While I was out having acupuncture yesterday, Genevieve took these photos of Sophie our labrador and the chooks sunning themselves together.

Interesting animal companions!

Well I'm off to do some housework type things like cleaning windows and folding up clothes.  Have a great weekend.  We are off to help celebrate my brother-in-law's 60th birthday tomorrow.

Anne  xx

Denim skirt to shoulder bag

Does anyone else have problems finding the perfect hand/shoulder bag or is it just me?  They are either too big, too small, the straps are too thin and dig into the shoulders and on it goes.  I've been wanting to have a go at making my own shoulder bag for some time now but not at all confident about coming up with a pattern that would suit.  So what to do.  This skirt has been sitting in my wardrobe for some time not being worn.

Light black denim skirt.

With some snipping and........

 sewing I now have this.  Ta dah!!!

Front

 

 

Back

 

Button loop made from a scrap of left over fabric.

Nice wide shoulder straps.

I was going to photograph the process of converting this skirt to a bag but there were so many steps I decided it would be quite tedious reading and viewing.  This is what I did.  After cutting off the bottom of the skirt I took in the waistband on either side to make a smaller opening.  I added pleats to the bottom of the bag as it was too hard to gather the material to make the bottom of the bag smaller.  I triple sewed the bottom for strength and zigzagged all raw edges.

I made the straps from the part of the skirt I cut off the bottom.  They are hemmed, doubled over and I used a very small zigzag stitch to reinforce the edges of the straps.  After pinning them in place, I triple sewed them in place adding an X shape for extra reinforcement.  The pockets were sewn shut at the top as they were to shallow to be used on the outside of the bag.  I created one pocket inside by cutting a slit on the front of the pocket piece inside the skirt and hemming around it.

So there you have it, a new and hopefully just about perfect bag for me that cost me nothing more than my time, yesterday afternoon and evening.  I had the thread and the button already in my stash.  I'm just wondering now if I should embellish my bag.  Anyone with ideas or suggestions?

Have a lovely day,

Anne  xx

A bit ahead of myself

A very good morning to everyone.  I hope this day finds you all happy and healthy.  Last post I was crowing away about how my bunting triangles were coming along and since then have made what I thought was many more.  Figuring I had more than enough to complete my project, I started joining the triangles together and when I got to the last one, I thought it might be a good idea to see if I had enough.  Oh dear, I had just enough to hang half way along the area I wish to decorate.
 

So here is what I've done so far.  This display spot will not be their final resting place.

When I was trying to arrange these dratted triangles, a sudden though came to me.  Hadn't I read something about blocking crochet?  I think perhaps I need to with these triangles and will need to read up on it.  Any tips anyone?  Will I need to unpull the chain stitch joining the triangles together?

Changing the subject completely, I am in complete adoration of bags like this.  Sorry about the quality of the photo.

A better example of these types of bags can be found here on Jacquie's blog Bunny Mummy.  I didn't find a gorgeous multi-coloured bag but I did find this which is perfect for storing works in progress.

Green is one of my favourite colours so I am very happy with my op. shop find.

Look at all that delicious wool.  It's not going to be any hardship to crochet more of those triangles.  I love them.

I'll leave you with a photo of my little blogging companion Stripey who is doing something I'd like to be doing right now.  SLEEPING!  Unfortunatley the day has only just begun and I've got house---- to do.  I had fun yesterday, now I'm paying the price. :(

Have a great weekend.

Anne  xx

100th post - Give away time

It's hard to believe I'm up to my 100th post. This blogging business is so much fun, time consuming, yes, but fun. I've met so many wonderful people doing all kinds of interesting things. Some are artists, some are crafters, some are decorators, some love to bake and cook and some talk about life. It's a fascinating world out there and I'm so happy to be a very small part of it. Blogging has challenged me to create more than I ever have before and I love it. It has been very good therapy for me as you will know from this post.

To celebrate this small milestone, I have a give away for you.  As some of you may know, I like to make things.  Things that are practical, helpful and pretty if possible.  So I've made four items that hopefully someone might be interested in receiving, and here they are.

The first item below is called a back sack.  It's made from cotton fabric, lined and is a cross between a back pack and a shoulder bag.  The bag is designed so that when you pull the straps, they act like a drawstring.  This is not my design.  I downloaded it a long time ago but can't find the link now so I can't credit the designer.

Thanks to Miss G. for being my model.

The back sack folds down quite small so you could pop it in your main shopping bag and use it for a spare.

The next item  is a roll up travel pouch for jewellery.  Or maybe even crochet hooks? :)  It's made from cotton and once again I can't take credit for the design, although I have added some of my own decorative touches.  The design came from a craft book my sister-in-law had and I don't have the authors name or title of the book.  Some of the jewellery I've used in this photo for display purposes, I've inherited.  Lucky me, I love old jewellery.

When you fold up the pouch, it's kept closed by tying the ribbons as can be seen in the first photo of this post.

The next item is an air freshener sachet (I showed you how I made them  here ), that can be used in the car or anywhere else you'd like, perhaps the wardrobe.  Put some dried lavender flowers, rose petals or cotton wool balls with a few drops of your favourite essential oil into the little calico bag and close.  Put the little bag into the pretty fabric outer bag and hang it wherever you want a nice aroma.

 I've left the ribbon long so you adjust it to suit your needs.

And now for the final item.  I've made bits and pieces of jewellery from time to time, earrings, bracelets, necklaces but never one of these.  It's a little bit quirky and I've used jewellery findings in unusual ways as decoration and added some charms.

It's a kilt pin brooch and quite heavy with all the added bits and pieces, so is probably best worn on a heavy winter scarf or jumper.

The materials used are costume jewellery items found at most craft stores. 

There's a very strong possibility I'll be adding something more to this give away.  Something to surprise you so I'm not telling.

If you would like to enter, leave me a comment telling me something interesting about yourself, anything.  I'd love to know a bit more about you.  If you are a follower, your name will go into the hat twice.  The close off day for entries is 30th November and anyone can enter.  I'll send a parcel anywhere in the world.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day/evening.

Anne xx

The price of "vintage"

Am I a cheapskate or what?  On one of the blogs I follow, a lady has won a give away of a lovely bag/tote, the retail price being $365.00.  Now I guess I'm going to sound jealous here but let me assure you I am not.  What I would like to say is that I can't see the value in the item.  The bag in question is made from an old German grain sack and made into quite a large tote like bag.  Is the value in the old grain sack, the labour hours it took to make (it's looks like a fairly simple design) or the fact that it can be bought from a business that sells "vintage/antique"?

I am not about criticising people who are earning a living, crafting, designing and spending a lot of time building a business.  I'm questioning whether the pricing of such items is over the top because it has the label "vintage or antique" attached to it?  I have similar issues with branded clothes.  They are made in the same sweat shops in China or India as the clothes you can buy in Target or K-mart, are usually the same quality but cost three and four times the amount, sometimes more.

This really does sound like I'm full of sour grapes but I don't understand when it appears someone is taking advantage of an image or idea and then uses that to tack on a huge price.

I may well be misguided and uneducated on this subject and would be interested in the opinion and viewpoints of other people.  Be brave, let me know what you think if you have the time to comment.

Anne

P.S.  I am in no way criticising the concept of give aways on blogs, vintage, antiques, or the lovely lady who won the bag.  It is lovely and she has used it beautifully in her home as a decorative piece.  It's all about the concept.  Just wanted to make that clear.

Update on reusable fruit and vege produce bags

Hello everyone.  I went grocery shopping today and tried out my new produce bags.  They hold fruit and veges very well, seem to be strong enough with 2kgs of apples in one bag holding well. I've made seven bags so far and including a couple of smaller ones for things like snow peas and beans.

There is a slight drawback to using your own bags though as I found out this morning.  Legally the supermarkets cannot weigh the produce in a homemade bag because it will include extra weight.  Even though I said I was happy to pay the extra 25grams worth, supermarkets will be fined if they are found to be doing this.  So at the present time, the person at the register has to take the produce out of the bag and weigh it separately to the bag.  This is time consuming if you are in a hurry and the man waiting behind me was very annoyed this process was taking extra time.  It's a bit tricky balancing 2 kgs of apples on the small scales at the register.  :-)

The lady at the register was lovely and wasn't bothered at all and even brought the problem to the attention of the produce manager at that store.  He is going to bring the topic up at their next management meeting.  So perhaps things might move along in a positive direction when it comes to providing your own produce bags.

On a completely different note, yesterday was the first time this spring I've been able to eat my lunch out in my garden room.  I had company as you see, however she was only interested in my sandwich and nothing to do with loyalty at all.

 

This photo is rather washed out because the sun was shining so brightly.  The garden room is looking a bit sad after winter, however with some new flowers in pots and a bit of a tidy up, it will look much better.  At least I washed down the table from all the winter grime and mould that had accumulated.

A few things are starting to poke their heads out in the garden too.

Snapdragons.  I've always loved snapdragons.

If you look hard you can see bees all over the echium.  Once again the bright sunlight has washed out these photos.

Roses finally in bud.

A glorious foxglove.

Pink and yellow aquilegia with a dark flowering euphorbia on the left of the photo.  The grey  leafed plant in the lower left is campion and will soon be flowering in rose and white.  It's wonderful seeing my garden come to life again.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day,

Anne

Reusable fruit and vegetable produce bags

Many of us are trying our best to eradicate excess packaging and plastic bags from our lives and although in Australia we are doing better with plastic shopping bags, at the supermarket we still put our fruit and vegetables into smaller plastic bags.  Some shoppers don't use them for things like a bunch of bananas or a rock melon, but it's a bit hard when you are buying beans of snow peas, you need something to put them in.

Inspiration for making my own reusable bags for fruit and veges came after seeing a fellow painter at art class with a small lightweight reusable bag made of some type of nylon material which was see through.  The bag was obviously manufactured by one of the companies producing "green" products and although I didn't ask how much they cost, I imagine it was a rather expensive as any "green" purchase seems to have a high price tag attached.

 The material the manufactured bag is made from isn't available at the fabric shop, so instead I chose a nylon curtain fabric. It's cheap and fairly lightweight, so won't add too much extra weight to my produce at the register.  It's almost mesh like so the person at the register can see what product is in the bag and it's also relatively strong.  It's going to be much stronger than a plastic bag that's for sure.  The materials I'm using can be easily washed and dried if necessary.

So here are some photos I took while making the bags.  I've made two, more will be in production tonight.  

I found it very hard to keep the material on the table as it kept slipping.

I cut out a paper pattern the size I wanted my bag allowing an extra couple centimetres for a seam allowance.  One edge of the pattern was placed on the fold and off I went cutting.

Only very basic sewing skills are needed to sew these bags and here I am hemming the bottom and side edges in straight stitch.   I didn't use pins, yes I'm slack, but I'm wasn't making a dress so it didn't matter. 

I double stitched the bottom and side seam for extra strength.

 I'm starting make the casing for the drawstring part of the bag.  The top edge of the material is folded once and straight stitch hemmed right around.  The bag is inside out as you sew this hem.

To complete the casing, fold the hem under leaving a couple of centimeters to allow the cord or string to be fed through.  Hem right around on the lower edged remembering to leave a space to feed cord through.

Measure enough cord to go through the casing with extra to tie a knot at the end.

 

I've used a synthetic cord which is likely to fray.  I've melted the ends to stop this happening, however if you don't like the sound of that, you could use a product like Stopfray.

I've attached the cord to a large safety pin to thread the cord through the casing.

When you have threaded the cord all the way through the casing, tie a knot to prevent the ends of the cord slipping back into the casing.  Turn your bag inside out and you have a wonderful environmentally friendly fruit and vege produce bag.

Out of interest, I weighed both a supermarket plastic produce bag and my homemade produce bag.

The plastic bag weighed in at 1 gram and my bag at 26 grams.  The extra weight of 25 grams at the register is a small price to pay for helping the environment.



I realise this post might be rehashing what someone else has done on another blog I'm unaware of.  If that's the case, my apologies.  I'm not too good at explaining things so I won't call this a tutorial.  I'm sure it's way to simplistic for advanced sewers and confusing for beginners.  If anyone has any questions, please email me.

Have a great day everyone and thank you for being patient with this rather long post.

Anne