As promised, this is the confidence-builder project number 2: my orange Harley bag.  I have been trying to find a tackle twill hoodie to make a bag for myself.  I’ve calculated, sketched, planned and searched trying to find an appropriate hoodie and a final prototype. I’m finicky about my bags so this has not been an easy chore.  But, once I saw this bright, hazard orange and black Harley hoodie at a local Harley Davidson dealer, I knew it was the prefect one for me.  This photo does not truly capture the color of this bag.  It is bright hazard orange, the type of orange that you see on state road construction worker, the same color as traffic cones.  But I like orange so that is fine.  The photo is purposefully dark so that the reflective stripes show.  The hoodie was trimmed in Scotchlite reflective material and I’ve tried to retain as much of that as possible.  Notice the stripes on the sleeves were trim for the pockets which are the sleeve cuffs.  The lining fabric was another fabulous find.  I’m sure it was originally meant to be a open-weave fabric design but at first glance, it looked like diamond plate to me and that was more than perfect for this bag.

What cannot be seen from this angle is a large embroidered Harley Davidson on the back of the back.  It came from the back of the hoodie, not a problem I’ve had with the previous hoodies.  So, I simply moved the kangaroo pocket to the front which is where I wanted the pocket.  This bag is so roomy, it holds my Slate in the laptop pocket inside and even has enough room for the accompanying bluetooth keyboard. One of the cuff pockets on the end is large enough to hold my two-part power cord while the other will hold my phone.

And another design touch is to keep the labels and the care tags and re-attach them inside on the lining.

Ahhh, I’m finally happy!  I have a bag for me and my toys.  But, now, there are more hoodies to convert into diaper bags and messenger bags and that is just the beginning.  I have my design pencil out making notes on other pocket options.

Long live hoodies!

I couldn’t help it. I love this little purse, courtesy of Quilts and More Magazine.  It was in their Spring issue.  It only takes a half-yard for the outside and a half-yard for the inside.  It is so light and easy.  I had to work one in this weekend between diaper bags.  This is my second one out of a really kicky Anthropology fabric.  Love the purple!

There is even a longer strap option:  Pattern

Once X-Libris was up, it was time to turn to the next project on the To-Do List. Hmmm, maybe I need a To-Do List Gadget here so we can all see what I have in progress and pressure me to stay on task.  Just when I was ready to start the next projects, I got sick.  Then I took a vacation for the annual Quilt Show pilgrimage.  And then I got sick again.  And then a vicious storm hit our area and I was without power for nearly a week, specifically the vacation week I had taken to knock out most of the To-Do list.  I am not ashamed to admit that I do have a treadle sewing machine that needs no electricity and I did have a oil lamp out trying to thread the treadle out of frustration with the piled up projects.  Needless to say, I’m so very behind I cannot even think about it.

Miraculously, I have dedicated (or chained) myself to my sewing machine in the past couple of days and have finally completed a project.  I have a short list of hoodie diaper and messenger bags to complete.  This is a pic of the first one.

So join me in saying, “Goodbye Texas. Hello Cincinnati!”

After the recent success of the hoodie diaper bag designs, I wanted to return to the handbag designs.  AND, being married to a Univ. of Tennessee fan, I had to rid my house of this Univ. of Kentucky sweatshirt.  LOL!  And neither is the university that pays the bills every month! 

Anywho, this is a short handled hobo style bag made from a book of slouch purses.  It started its life as a youth hoodie.  I removed the kangaroo pocket from the front of the sweatshirt and reattached it to the inside, using it as a pocket. I stitched it so that it could be used as 3-sectioned pocket.  I reattached the label and fabric care tags inside the top edge of the pocket.  There is just something about having the care instructions with it that appeals to me. 

The plan is to put it up on my Etsy and send it far away from my home.  That’s not to say that more UK stuff will come into the house.  I’ve been getting orders from several states for the hoodie diaper bags and they are a variety of schools and colors.

Recycled coffee bag

This is a project that has rolled around in my mind for quite a while.  I’m as supportive of recycling as the next person.  But I love how the young people think it is something they thought of.  I grew up during the Energy Crisis of the 70’s and I remember when all of the public facility light switches had a fluorescent orange sticker on them saying to turn off the lights when the room is not in use. I am also a reformed plasti-holic.  I have actively returned to using glasses and fabric towels and real plates instead of the paper versions that kill trees.  But I love bags and I grew up on a farm with gunny sacks and my husband has recently discovered coffee so I found a certain appeal in the purses and bags on websites that are recycled from a burlap coffee sack.

Surprisingly, on a fall Rural King visit, I found a large pallet of used burlap bags.  One look revealed a multitude of coffee houses and roasters from exotic European countries as well as the South American continent.  I couldn’t help it.  I grabbed up 2.  One was a standard dark brown burlap with green and black stenciled markings  from the Rain Forest.  Another visit to another regional Rural King yielded another bag.  This could become a habit! The price was right.  When the cashier could find them in the register (they were listed as gunny sacks and she couldn’t spell that,) they rang up at 99 cents.On particular one enticed me.  You see a portion of it in the photo.  it was an especially light colored burlap, coarsely woven with 3 pink and green stripes woven in.

A visit to a local quilt shop produced another bargain that just screamed to be paired with this particular bag.  The fabric was adorable, something from the Fiesta dinnerware days.  It was in a particularly familiar pink and dark seafoam green and there were Mexican motifs all over it.  There was a quaint Mexican couple in sombreros with their donkey and cactus and pottery scattered over it.  It was perfect!

So, on MLK, I could ignore the voices in my head no longer and grabbed up the colorful gunny, a favorite bag pattern and the lining fabric as well as some piping in the corresponding pink and green.  A bag materialized from my efforts but let me say, many a lesson was learned in fabrication AND patience.

This I learned:

• use a finely-woven burlap bag……coarse burlap is too open weave to use with a backing of white canvas.
• wear a mask when cutting and sewing….these fibers fly everywhere when cut or stitched, so always wear a mask to keep the guck out of your lungs. (Beware, it goes everywhere.)
• choose a flexible bag……when the burlap bag did not want to fold up and go in the bag at the cash register, I should have seen that as a warning sign.
• use a very unstructured pattern ….this fiber does not lend itself to pressing seams open and turning shoulder strap.  I spend an hour trying to get the fiber to flex enough to turn the strap.  There were cuss words.

So here it is.  I’m not so sure that I’ve done Juan Valdez justice.  But I had to answer its call instead of working on e-book readers that I had cut wrong and growing list of projects.

In keeping with the Mildred Pierce quilt from a previous post, I had leftover blocks when Glee was completed. Leftover blocks and a new purse pattern plus a pressing need for a new purse caused me to create this. I added a black batik I picked up at Backyard Fabrics, a quilt store that I love but frequently forget. The basic design was my own. I kind of made it up as I went. I wanted this basic shape with a zipper and a long shoulder strap. The results suited me better this time than with Mildred. A friend carries Mildred Jr. now. I’m planning to carry this one and at least this way, Glee will never be far from me.

My purse is so bright, I gotta wear shades!

I find that I sew best when there is a movie on. Being a huge movie buff, I’m addicted to the two hour glimpses into other worlds and other lives. I prefer to sit in front of the TV in the evening and cut out the pieces. Then when I start construction, I like to be at home with a TV in the front of the house and a TV in the back of the house synchronized to the same movie channel while I move about from cutting table to sewing machine to ironing board. I did not realize until this bag that certain projects bring to mind the movie that I was watching at the time.

I was cutting out this bag last night while watching The Cutting Edge: Fire and Ice. I think this wonderful Indonesian Batik from Batiks by Design could go along with that fire and ice theme. It has deep red for fire as well as navy blue which could be thought of as an frigidly cold dark color. Also, there are parts of the design than could be similar to fire “licks”. The movie that was on while I sewed was The Flight of the Phoenix, the original best version. Elements of the motifs made me think of the ancient Phoenix as it rises from the ashes (fire again). So there you have it.

The pattern is nothing special…..something from a commercial pattern manufacturer, but a shape that I wanted to try, none the less.