My Saturday night sewing project

Mike and I spent the evening in my quilt studio tonight. We'd had a quiet day, went out to lunch and ran a few errands and we were both in need of some creative time. He played his guitar and I decided to try out a new pattern that I bought a few weeks ago. Romeo, Elvis and Larry also joined us.

My friend Dianne at work recently painted these fabulous wooden letters for my quilt studio. I am going to hang them on the wall after I get the studio painted.

With Larry helping me...

Without Larry...

She didn't want to be paid, but she did mention that she would like me to make her a bag to carry her dress shoes to work in. I had just the thing! One of the quilt blogs that I read regularly, is called In Color Order by Jeni Baker http://www.incolororder.com/, and I had recently purchased her lined drawstring bag pattern http://incolororder.bigcartel.com/product/lined-drawstring-bag-pdf-pattern. The pattern includes eight different sizes of drawstring bags, plus she gives you information on how to design a custom size of your own. The pattern was an easy pdf download and was reasonably priced at $6.50. Jeni also offers a free tutorial http://www.incolororder.com/2011/10/lined-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html with just one size. Last month she created an additional tutorial featuring a striped version of the drawstring bag http://www.incolororder.com/2012/09/striped-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html.

Jeni's pattern was very detailed and easy to follow. It took me about two plus hours to make the bag, but I'm a slow sewer and I took my time. It came out great! I think that Dianne will like it, especially since her favorite colors are pink and purple. The size that I made is called the Artist Bag and it measures 16" high by 14.5" wide. It is fully lined and has a gusseted bottom. All the fabric came from my fabric stash.

I will definitely be making this bag again. It was fun and easy.  You can use your fabric scraps or yardage. I can see a lot of different uses as well as a lot of different options to customize it. I would like to make some shoe bags of my own for my luggage when I travel, as well as a larger fabric laundry bag. These bags would be great for over-sized gifts, instead of wrapping paper. You could also have a lot of fun using different types of fabric, such as denim or quilted fabric or decorator fabric. You could also embellish them with your embroidery machine or pretty ribbon.

Best of all--a finished project in an evening! That's a record for me!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy