Christmas Gift Sewing Part 2: Bags and Other Sundries

Thanks for all the cathedral windows love, ladies. I'm hopefully getting some good practice for when I start my quilt in 2011.

**************
Here are the rest of the items I made for my family and friends for Christmas.

This is my second try at Oh, Fransson!'s Margaret bag. I like the fabric for this one much better than the other one I made. One of my besties sent me this fabric back in May and I finally got around to making it for her.



My niece loved the fabric on the first Margaret bag, so I used what I had left to make her a messenger bag. It's from One Yard Wonders and is the perfect size for her to carry around a book or two (as a 12-year-old, she's quite the avid reader - the fabric even looks a bit like stacks of books).





Another One Yard Wonders project (in fact, all the rest of these projects are from that book) were these little elephants. I made one for my daughter (pictured at right) and one for another niece (on the left). I made a few modifications to the one for baby Clara, like omitting the button eyes and increasing the size of the trunk. It took me 45 minutes just to turn the teeny tiny trunk on the first one I made (on the right). What a pain.



I received this Coca Cola polar bear fabric from one of the gals in my Ho-Ho Holiday swap group. I used it to make a warming rice bag for my brother-in-law for Christmas.



I made another rice bag for my dad and added a wrap. He can warm up the rice bag, slip it into the holder, and wrap it around him so it stays put on his back if he's lying on his side or something.



We have bad backs in our family (I had back surgery last year - and I was only 27), so I'm planning on making one of these rice bag wraps for me soon.



For my nephew, I made this little tool belt. He and his brother like to dress up so I thought this would be fun for him to play with.





I'm glad I'm done with Christmas sewing. I need to start planning sooner for this next Christmas so I can enjoy more of the holiday season without being so stressed.

Purse Week Entry

A Lemon Squeezy Home hosted Purse Week last week. I wasn't going to enter anything, but Friday afternoon I had a rare moment of a still napping child while the older one was still at school. I had finished work for the day and wanted a project to work on. My friend asked me to make her Oh Fransson's Margaret Bag so I whipped up a test bag first (no reason to cut into my friend's fabric without making sure I knew what I was doing beforehand). I wonder if Elizabeth removed the link for her bag tutorial because I can't find it on her website anymore.


For the outer part of the bag, I used some brown stacks fabric from Jessica Jones that I had in my stash. For the lining, I used the canvas cotton curtains that I have used on pretty much every bag I've made this year (great way to repurpose). I didn't use all the layers that Elizabeth suggests because I'm lazy like that. The bag feels sturdy enough for me, but I'm sure the extra layers of interfacing and fleece interfacing would provide better structure and be more heavy duty.


I used a decorative leaf stitch when I topstitched around the mouth of the bag and around the handles. I really like how it turned out. I used the same stitch across the top of the inside pockets (but I won't show you those since I didn't pin one of them and I sewed it on crooked).


So my favorite part of this bag is actually the button.


Isn't it cute?! My sister made it out of polymer clay to mimic the design of the bag. Isn't she clever? She's been making and selling diaper bags lately. She started making her own buttons to match the fabric (color and design) and personalize the bags more.