Another Calendar Towel Project Bag

I made myself another zippered project bag from a calendar towel. This one was in a box of red cotton scraps from an estate sale  and the fabric isn't nearly as worn or faded as  the first one...which might not be a good thing because the colors are almost painfully bright. Would it be completely ridiculous to just throw a towel through the laundry every load until it fades? 

This bag isn't lined with fusible interfacing because I've only got a yard left at the house and I have plans for using it up and no plans to drive into town soon. Compared to the first bag, it has much less structure...but does a pair of socks in progress really need a bag that isn't floppy?

The proportions are also a bit off, but someone had cut the bottom of the towel...maybe to remove the year? It's always interesting to wonder what happened to my things before I owned  them. I left it wide to keep the trees and to keep as much of the stream as possible I cropped off the top of the church steeple. It seems like there's always some give and take with projects like this one. But I'm not complaining -- this is made from a fat quarter I got for a quarter at the thrift shop, a tea towel I found in a bag of scraps, and a ten cent zipper from an estate sale haul.

{Tutorial} Tea Towel Project Bag

I love vintage tea towels, especially when the illustrations on them are as gorgeous as this covered bridge and fall foliage. Over the years, I've found plenty at the thrift store and estate sales and most of those have been used in our kitchen. They're already old and worn, so they might as well continue that purpose in life, right?

This time, I upgraded my tea towel into a zippered project bag. 

The fabric is so soft and faded that I'm sure it was used in someone's kitchen for many years. Before I cut it into pieces, I used some mid-weight fusible interfacing to stabilize the weave of the fabric a bit.

One of the zippers from that estate sale haul a few years back was the perfect shade of orange to go with those autumn leaves.

And the 1971 calendar looks great on the back. I did have to choose between the year and months or a poem about covered bridges that ran along the very bottom. Working with vintage  fabric always involves tough choices, doesn't it?

I did forget a step when I was shortening my zipper so my lining doesn't have enclosed seams. I think my cross stitch and knitting will survive a few stray threads. I'll do it right next time....and there will be lots of next times because I'm loving the idea of making more tea towel bags.

If you want to see more details about how I made this one, check out the video below.

A Five Hundred and Two Piece Project Bag

Months ago, I was standing in line at the grocery store and caught a glimpse of a yellow and white quilt on a magazine cover. It was a home decor magazine and the quilt was barely visible, but the idea of yellow and white stuck with me. I thought I'd do something with that color combination once Bag It! rolled around.

By the time I was ready to get started, I had no idea what pattern that original quilt used. I knew I wanted a lot of blocks so that it would look like a quilt.  Nine patches and snowballs are easy to make, and I'd already worked out their measurements for this project, so I went with that. Each block finishes at 1 1/2".

The front and back of the bag are identical, with thirty-five blocks on each. My piecing and quilting are a disaster, but I really like the idea. And it's definitely good enough to haul a knitting project around in.

This project used up every last scrap of solid cheddar from my bow ties quilt. So in addition to being cute and sturdy, it's a happy reminder of one of my favorite scrap quilts.

If I had more solid cheddar, I'd think about making a strap and turning it into a purse....but I don't so I'll think about making something similar, but a little larger and with inner pockets. 

Want to make one of your own? I didn't have the time to photograph and write up the steps for a tutorial, but it's easy enough to figure out. Use the measurements and piecing instructions from my Full Blown Quilt Lust mini quilt to make thirty-six nine patch blocks and thirty-four snowball blocks. (The color placement in this one is reversed, but it'll look nice either way.) Each side of the bag is seven blocks by five blocks, with a two inch border. I quilted the front and back to a piece of scrap batting, then assembled them into a lined pouch. Easy -- as long as you don't mind piecing those seventy-five little blocks!

This post is linked to Bag It! and Crazy Mom Quilts. 

I'm Not a Fan of Fussy Cutting

Now that I've gotten more comfortable installing zippers, it's the fabric giving me fits. The piece of yardage I used for this bag was on the freebie table at our quilting group, deemed "not suitable for charity quilts." (On the same day that I picked up the fabric I used in my last bag.)  It was pretty, so it came home with me and I decided to make a project bag or two while I try to figure out why classical artwork isn't suitable for charity quilts. 

I wanted a bag that showcased one image without having chopped off bits of the others along the edges. That was easier said than done and involved too much fabric waste to make me happy. I'm not a fan of fussy cutting when it involves taking a hunk of the center of the fabric, but to get the ladies I wanted, I had no choice...

What would you do with this hunk of fabric? I could see using it as a quilt back, or maybe someone using it to make a skirt. Or apron? Whatever it is, it's going to require either a big stretch of uncut fabric or some seriously wasteful fussy cutting.

The other side of the bag has a different image. In my head, I wanted it to be bigger, but that wouldn't have looked right. Now I'm thinking of two different ways I could have worked with this fabric...happily I have two yards of the stuff so, even if I'm being wasteful, it'll go a long ways.

This post is linked to Bag It! and Crazy Mom Quilts. 

The Most Suitable "Unsuitable" Fabric

At the quilting group a couple of weeks ago, there was a table full of fabric up for grabs. Someone had deemed it unsuitable for our donation quilts and I guess if I really think about it I can understand why this print was on the table. 

It might not be a good choice for the quilts we're putting together, but it made a pretty fantastic project bag!  

I was always one of those stitchers who carries around her project in whatever's handy. That was a clear Zip Loc on a good day and a slightly torn plastic grocery sack on the rest. None of the lectures about how "Your work is worth better than that" or "Something will get thrown away by accident" made any difference.

These project bags, especially the ones with the clear fronts, are curing me of that. They're nice and pretty and if I actually use them on a consistent basis I'll need to make more.

How about you? Do you carry your projects around in something nice -- or whatever's handy?

This post is linked to Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Potluck Project Bag

I struggled with the placement of these fabrics. Some I adore and others are just fillers. It wouldn't be the best use of my precuts to only pull out the ones I love, not when I'm just working with 2 1/2" squares to begin with. So I fussed and fussed some more and got them all pieced into two panels.

That was the hard part. Sewing a zippered project bag is easy, even if I succumb the influence of Lier over at Ikat Bag and line it properly. And quilt the outside because if I'm playing with the fabric that's too good to cut, I should do things right. I'll like the finished bag more if it has some substance and holds its shape.

After all of that careful fabric placement and choosing the best thrifted zipper to match the yellows, can you see what I did? (Hint -- look at where the zipper is and which direction the prints are facing.) I didn't see the problem until I had the entire bag assembled and I wasn't about to rip out every seam to redo it. I keep hearing that we're not supposed to point out our mistakes, but if I can save one of you from sewing directional prints the wrong direction, I'm happy to share my embarrassment.

Tea Pot Project Bag

I  can't stand the taste or aroma of actual tea, but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy the cute little teapots on this novelty print. 

It would have been a shame to cut it into little pieces and lose all of the details, so I made a quickie project bag that's just the right size for a pair of socks.

Now that I've used most of the fabric for something useful, I won't feel at all guilty about incorporating the rest into a scrap quilt. I think some of the pots would show up in a sixteen-patch or flying geese unit.