a little sewing

When I took the sewing class a few weeks ago with TheNiece, we made a cute little drawstring bag. I think the idea was that it could be a project bag for knitting, but other uses were suggested, from buying bulk foods, to holding cosmetics. I personally use mine to stash socks and undies in my weekender tote as I go between the two houses.

Well, it was a very simple bag, and I decided that when I made v.2 I would trying using bias tape to make a contrasting channel for the drawstring.  Then I set to embellishing it to make it a personalized bag for Kimberly, as it's her birthday.

Her blog is called Craftini and she has a pug, so I could not resist using this image once I found it. I used my printer to get it onto iron on transfer paper, then ironed it onto plain white fabric. I used a product called "Wonder-Under" to iron it on to the bag, then did a little hand stitching around it to secure it and give it a handmade touch.

The image was a little smudgy (it didn't set with heat as well as I thought it would), so I may try another product next time. A knitter/quilter friend of mine (Sandy) told me that there is another product that lets you print directly onto the fabric itself rather than creating an iron on transfer....so I'll fiddle with that sometime soon (I think it's this stuff, but I'll have to check with her because I am having a brain fart and I didn't write it down anywhere...but whatever it is, she says it's great).

I found the WonderUnder to be a bit smudgy too (got a little stuck to the iron and made a mess on the heart), but I'm trying to turn a blind eye to it.  Above, you can see I sewed on a "patch" by machine, hand embroidered her initial, ironed on the heart made out of a felted sweater remnant, then hand stitched that with a tacking stitch around the edges in a contrasting thread. I topped it off by sewing on a few cute vintage glass buttons (she's a button addict like me).

This little tag was on the back of the bag in the bottom right corner. It was made with a rubber stamp and fabric paint onto white cotton, then stitched in place.

I had a really good time making this, and I'm starting to think about other bags I can make for other friends, customizing them for each one. Fun times :-)

I'm going to do a little sewing tomorrow.  I want to start drafting a pattern for an A-Line skirt and sew a muslin/mock-up to see what sort mess I've made.  I have a hunch I'm so curvy that the seams will be all over place, and my zipper could be a total joke....but I'm going to give it a whirl anyhow.  If it doesn't work I'll make a looser fitting skirt with elastic...hahahahaha.  Stay tuned.