Gift Bag Tutorial

I am making some ornaments and/or gift tags to put on my etsy shop and have been trying to decide on packaging for these items.  Originally, I thought I would purchase cellophane or paper bags and print off a label for the bag.  But then I thought about all the fabric I have in my stash.  Why not make drawstring bags. 

So today I sat down and made a prototype.  I think I like it. 





Here is my step by step tutorial on how to make these bags.  You can make them any size, so adjust if you want something larger or smaller.

Cut out two squares of fabric.  I cut mine 5.5 inches square.   Measure and mark about 1 1/4 inch down from the top on the sides of both squares.  Make  a 1/2 inch cut into the squares from each side.  Finger press the cut corners to the wrong side of the fabric and stitch close to the edge. 

Now fold the top edges of both squares down about 1/8 inch and then again at that 1 1/4 inch mark that you made.  Pin this edge down. 

Sew close to the open edge of these folds, creating a casing for the drawstring.

 

 

Now lay the squares right sides together and pin the sides and bottom.  Sew all 3 sides, turning at the corners.  I used a 1/2 " seam allowance. 

 



  Now you could just turn the bag right side out at this point, thread ribbon through the casing and be done making your gift bag.  BUT,  I wanted to make a flat bottom bag.  So, the next step is to press both side seams to the left.  Then lay the bag down so that the side seams are now centered on the top and bottom. (instead of being at the sides)  When you have it lying like this, you are going to tuck the bottom of the bag inside.  Huh, you ask.  Okay, go to the bottom corners of the bag and start pushing the fabric inside so that it looks like the picture below.  I left a little more than 2 inches of fabric straight and tucked in all the fabric below that. 

Mark a line about 1 inch up from the bottom point.  Do this for the top and bottom point.  Then sew across each point on this line.  Cut off the excess fabric on the points. Look at that bag sitting on its flat bottom! 

Now turn the bag right side out and look at the wonderful job you did.  Here is what the bottom should look like. 

Now, cut two pieces of 1/8 inch ribbon about 12-14" in length.  Feed the first ribbon from the left all the way around the bag.  Tie the two ends of the ribbon together.  Feed the second ribbon from the right side all the way around the bag.  Tie those ends together.  The result will be ribbon tied on opposite ends of the casings. 



Now fill those bags with your gift of choice.  Here are some of my gift tags in this bag. 

 

Now I need to go make a bunch more!  Have fun making yours.  



 



 

Quilt Fraying

I decided to wash Natalie's quilt before giving it to her.   Part of the reason was that I love the "puckering" effect that you get after washing the quilt.  I thought Natalie would like this "vintage" look.  The second reason was that I was a little nervous about the width of some seams on the edges of the quilt.  I really scrimped when squaring up the quilt, not wanting to cut off too much of the edges...what a mistake.  In a couple of areas, I knew this would mean I would have about 1/8" instead of 1/4" seams when I added the binding.  Even after completing the quilt, it kept nagging at me.  I was afraid the quilt would fall apart the first time Natalie washed it.
So, here's what the quilt looked like after I washed it:



Uggh.  Just what I was afraid of.  But, what to do.  I opened the binding on one of the frayed areas and tried to iron on some Stitch witchery-like stuff (it wasn't Stitch Witchery, but I can't remember the name of the stuff...it something you use when appliquing) to the area.  I thought I could kind of "seal" the fabric and I could then somehow reattach the binding over the edge.  That was my second mistake.  The iron melted the applique stuff, the edge curled, and the whole area was stiff.  It was worse than when I began.  Desparate, I thought I could take off the whole piece of the affected block.  But, the more I analyzed it, I realized that this was impossible.  I would have to remove all the quilting in the area...what would I do about the now unquilted area on the back of the quilt?  The stitching holes would show and look terrible!  So, I decided to add an applique over each of the frayed areas.  Honestly, I couldn't think of another solution and I have never appliqued before, never ever.  I had a piece of fabric that I had wanted to use for the quilt but when I decided on solids, I had set it aside.  It was the Erin McMorris Grey Bicycles from the Weekend Collection.  I loved those little bikes with pink flowers in the basket and I had grey in the quilt. 



So, how did I do?  Not too well.  Shouldn't applique be a cinch?  It wasn't and the whole thing just looked like a stupid patch after I was through.  But, I had committed to this fix and had to follow through on the other frayed area.  I haven't uploaded a photo, but will show it next time. 
Oh well......isn't it the thought that counts?  I hope Natalie still loves the sentiment behind making her quilt. 

My First Quilt

About 3 years ago, my husband, parents and in-laws spent waaayy toooo much money on a new sewing machine for me.  It's a Bernina Aurora 430.  It does things I don 't even know I want to learn about.  I took a class to learn how to use it, but never really used it for anything other than mending and making window treatments.  So, about 5 weeks ago, I was just looking through various blogs when I came across one called Obsessively Stitching by a super talented woman named Care.  Care had posted a tutorial called First Quilt Ever.

She was going to teach how to make a quilt.....step by step. It was several months old, so I could read all the steps at once and I was immediately hooked!  I just had to try making a quilt.  So, following her instructions, off I went to JoAnns.  I didn't even know where one was, but lo and behold, one is only 2 miles from my house, right next to one of my favorite stores, T J Maxx. Who knew?  So these are the fabrics I brought home.  I heeded her instructions and didn't buy any stripes or plaids. 

I dove in and following Care's super good, easy-peasy directions I was on my way. I did take some pics along the way, not even really knowing what I'd do with them.  And, boy, I'm glad I did, cuz now I can post them.

Here is one of my block assemblies:

Unfortunately, I don't have any other pictures until I assembled the top.  But, believe me, it was as simple as pie.  I had no idea how all those little squares and rectangles were made.

Here's the strip for the backing, but I don't actually have a picture of the final backing:

 Then I had a problem.  Care suggested that I tape the backing, batting, top assembly to a tile floor so I could pin-baste it.  The problem is that every room in my house is either carpeted (that wouldn't work because I would end up pinning the quilt to the carpet) or has hardwood floors (imagine the scratches if I pinned on that!)....except the bathrooms. So, there I was trying to tape this quilt to my bathroom floor.  I mean it took up almost the entire space... I had to crawl under the counter to get to one side of the quilt in order to pin. Note the quilt taped right next to the lovely shower and cabinets.   lol. :)

Anyway, I finally succeeded in pinning the quilt.  Oh, and by the way, Care doesn't warn you how much your knees will hurt after kneeling on that tile.


Then I froze.  I didn't have the courage to do the machine quilting.  So, the whole assembly is still sitting on the guest room bed waiting for me to get my confidence up to quilt it.  I decided to make a little autumn runner first and quilt it.  Good thing I did because I did mess up in the quilting.  I didn't realize that part of the backing got folded over.  I don't think you can fix that, but I've heard that once you wash a quilt you may not notice it as much.  Then I decided to make the Christmas table runner.  I didn't mess up on that, but it was straight line stitching with a walking foot, so it wasn't a problem.  

Anyway, thanks to Care, I'm now eager to do more quilting/sewing projects.  So, Santa, if you're listening, please bring this girl some fabrics and notions this year.

Joy and Peace,
kelly

Christmas Table Runner

I saw this really cute, cute Halloween table runner on this great blog, Pleasant Home.  Here is the link.  Isn't it the greatest quilted pumpkin runner you ever saw? 

As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to try to make a Christmas one for myself.  Problem is I have only made 2 quilted pieces and they had instructions.  For this one, I was going to have to figure it out all by my little lonesome self.  I wanted to use a solid white background just like the Halloween one and put 3 wonky Christmas trees on it.  These are the fabrics I chose:

I used the 3 prints to cut out the trees.That was a learning experience in  itself.  I had only worked with squares and rectangles, so I didn't know that I would need to make the lower section larger than the one above it.  Oops, I've already forgotten what I learned.  I needed to make the lower section smaller than the one above it.  See the photo.  That way, when I sewed them together, I ended up with nice triangles. 

 
Then, the second challenge was to figure out how to attach the white background.  I worked in 3 sections, one for each Christmas tree.  So, first I cut a piece of white for the left hand side of the tree and attached it...not hard.  Then I cut one for the right hand side of the tree.  It took a lot of trial and error to figure out how to add the seam allowances.  For the white section that has the tree trunk, I could never figure out how to sew the trunk into the white fabric....I ended up appliquing it onto that section.  Lastly, I sewed the tree section to the trunk section.  I kind of wanted it to end up more off-center to emphasize the wonkiness, but it's alright.

Then I sewed all three trees together.Things that I needed to be careful of:  making the horizontal seams nice and straight and parallel, making the vertical seams vertical, evenly spacing the trees, and having about the same amount of white fabric outside the outer trees.

Then I cut batting and backing fabric about two inches larger than the front.  I loved how the pumpkin runner was quilted in straight lines, alternating the direction of each section.  So, I decided to quilt the outer trees horizontally and do the middle section vertically.  The quilt lines are about 3/4 inches apart.  I used the same backing fabric for the binding, but made it kinda scrappy by inserting small sections of the tree fabrics.  Here is the final product:

Oh, and, noone told me I'd need a walking foot to quilt this.  This wasn't included in my fancy, dancy sewing machine.  So, I called the local Bernina shop to ask how much they were.  I almost had a heart attack.  I had no idea an attachment could cost so much.  But they did have a 25% coupon, so I guess I just suffered a stroke.

I like the runner, but there is one problem I should have thought about.  I didn't wash the red backing fabric beforehand and it bleeds when wet.....SO, I guess I will never be able to wash this runner....need to keep my fingers crossed that noone spills on it. lol.....oh well, it was a fun learning experience.

Joy and Peace,

Kelly

Headbands!

I decided to try to make a few headbands for J.  She went through my fabric piles and chose some she liked.  I followed this tutorial from Old Red Barn Co, so she gets all the credit for how to make these.

For the first headband, I followed the tutorial exactly, but J wanted a narrower one.  So, for the next one, I cut my strips 3" wide.  I didn't want to make the narrow part any smaller, so I didn't cut over 1 inch or i would have ended up with only 1 inch on the narrow end.  I just cut at an angle to still have 2 inches at the top.  J also wanted her headband a little tighter.  I tried cutting a piece of elastic that was about 2 1/2 inches long, but it ended up WAY too tight.  So, I left it 3 inches long and just inserted it further into the headband.  I think she was pleased with the 3rd headband.  It was the only one that made the final cut.  LOL.  They were fun to make though.