An Oldy But a Goody

Since I was pretty happy with my last bag project, I thought better go on and strike while the iron is hot.  I have been wanting to make myself something with the amazing Indian Summer fabric line by Sarah Watson.  I did start a quilt with it a while back and it is almost complete, but I wanted something that I could use on a more regular basis.  I seem to have gotten my  knitting mojo back so I thought that a new knitting project bag may be just the thing.

I decided to go with an older Amy Butler pattern that has been collecting dust in my obscenely large pattern stash.  (no seriously, I may actually need an intervention for this problem, but that is a whole other blog post) 

 

This print is one of my favorites.  All the animal faces make me so happy.

 I stuck pretty close to the pattern.  The things I changed were that I used Pellon fusible fleece for the main body of the bag because I wanted the bag to have more structure and then I only added one pocket to the inside instead of two like the pattern calls for.  I also decided to use a 3rd fabric for the handles to add a little of my favorite color.  :)

I think that this bag is pretty happy and my knitting will look quite happy in it.

Pretty good way to start off Selfish Sewing Week methinks.

Happy Saturday!

Bag O' Tricks

Sometimes it's just nice to make something.  No reason for it.  You just see something and you think, "Hey, that would be fun to make!"  Usually if this happens, I try to conjure up a reason to make it, like finding someone who wants to do a swap or something. 

Are you guys familiar with the online workshop site, Creativebug?  So many good things on this website.  With workshops from instructors like, Anna Maria Horner, Cal Patch, Heather Ross, and Natalie Chanin.  And for September, you can lock in your subscription price for only $10 a month.  Score!

So, one of the most recent workshops is this travel kit from Betz White.  She says in the video that it would make a great little bag to store you toiletries in when you travel, but of course when I saw this, my brain saw the cutest knitting project bag EVER. 

So I got to work, plotting and planning.  Pulling fabrics and rummaging through "the horde" to see what kind of precious things I could use to make this bag.  Since the bag is so small, the fabric requirements are minimal and therefore I thought cutting into some precious things was warranted.

Now, I did change some things from the original.  I knew I wasn't going to want to cover up any of my precious fabric so the handles would have to be moved. 

I also decided that I wanted this little bag to be super sturdy, so I first fused all of the pieces with   SF-101 and then fused the fusible fleece on top of that, on all of the pieces.  And then SF-101 on the lining pieces also.  On the bottom piece, I used fusible Peltex, which I trimmed to be about a 1/4" smaller on all of the sides so I wouldn't have to deal with sewing through it.  BAM!!! Bag of superior sturdiness accomplished.   It would take a bomb to destroy this thing.

The fabric that I used is an Echino quilting cotton from a few years back and paired it with a natural linen.  I then decided it would be pretty neat if the webs on it were sparkly.  So I quilted over the straight lines running through the web on all of the pieces.  And then just did random straight line quilting on the bottom linen part.

I added a little punch of color to the handles with some plum-y shot cotton that I had.

Along with a pretty purple zipper.

And of course, it wouldn't be one of my projects if it didn't have a little Lizzy House fabric included somewhere.

 

Emoting ghosts are the bestest in my opinion.   :)

Add in a handmade bag charm with a matching zipper pouch and stitch markers, and you have one pretty cute little knitting project bag.

This bag was so great and satisfying to make, I know that I will be making several others for holiday gifts for knitting friends.

Stash Match September

I am a little late on this post.  But better late than never, right?  I swear those words will be on my tombstone.

A few months ago Ali started a fun little game called Stash Match.  She picks an inspiration photo and 6 bloggers to rummage through their stash and pick at least 10 fabrics, but no more than 20, take a picture of them and send them to her.  The fabrics have to be at least a Fat Eighth cut (no scrap diving), and you can't go out and buy anything new.  Make sense?  Good.

Then your job is to check out the pictures on Ali's blog and match up the pictures to which blogger they belong to. If you guess all of the pictures right you will have a chance to win an Awesome prize!! 

This month, Ali chose a print from Rashida Coleman-Hale's Koi line (love this fabric) as the inspiration photo.

So head on over there and give it a shot, and see if you can tell which one is mine.  I made sure to include some geeky goodness in the stack (hint, hint)