Saturday, April 23, 2011

Guitar Strap Bag

My son purchased a role of colorful woven strap fabric he liked so that he could make a new guitar strap out of it. Once he unrolled the strap fabric, he realized that it wasn't sturdy enough by itself to do the job. He decided to back it with some faux suede. After he finished the guitar strap, there was nearly a yard of the faux suede left.
I asked him if I could use the remainder and he agreed. I used my new sewing machine (Brother SQ9000) to put together a cross body bag. I took advantage of the decorative stitches available on this machine for the bag flap.
The lining fabric was left over from a roman shade I made for my kitchen. The lining has vining leaves, so I choose a decorative stitch to go with that. The results are pleasing. See for yourself...


Easter Bunnies

I made this bunch of bunnies using men's shirts and ties and some left over fabric scraps. I found the pattern and directions here: http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/stuffed-bunny
They were so fun and easy to make that I actually made 6 of them. I gave 3 of them to some special little people in my life. The ones above are the ones I have left.
The yellow in the ears of the middle and right hand ones are from one of my husband's ties. It was from the '80s, so I used it without asking him first.
Lucky for me he was not angry when I fessed up. He acknowledged that he only wears ties to weddings and funerals.
I promptly retrieved 3 more ties from his closet.
I will post the projects from those in a later post.

Monday, April 4, 2011

More bags...

Last weekend I spent some time creating some messenger bags for a couple of my friends and my daughter. I made a large padded one (room for a Mac Book)  with a big wide handle. I love it!
I am supposed to give it to my daughter, but I just might have to keep it.  The fabric is some that my mom sent me. She bought it to make herself a jacket, which she obviously never did. I have used it on about 4 bags, and have used it up.
This is how I will rationalize it when I explain to my daughter that it is mine.
I made 2 other smaller bags and tried a bit of quilting on the flap. This is my first attempt at piecing.

I am fairly happy with the results. (Notice Mom's never-used jacket fabric)
The other fabric you see looks like washed-out denim in the photo, but it is actually a pale blue corduroy. The corduroy, I purchased at a tiny thrift store around the corner from my house. It was a huge piece of fabric for only $2. I have more left. It is perfect for these type of messenger bags.



This  one is really my pieced-a-resistance? (That doesn't seem right) Anyway, it is truly pieced like a quilt. Can you see the mismatched stripes?