Variation on a bucket bag

One of the basic bag shapes is a bucket bag, where a cylinder is sewn to a shaped base.  This is a photo from the book by Yoko Saito called, New Classic Patch Work

One of the bags I love in it is called the Tailgate tote,

It uses this really cute little block,

The tall, tapered shape appealed to me, but I wasn't in the mood to do all of the piecing of the little blocks.  Instead I pieced a very simple stack of rectangles, laid them on the background fabric, and covered the raw edges with ribbon.

The sewing was pretty straightforward

I used Annie's soft n Stable for the batting,

Had some fun with a combination of straight line and free motion quilting in a wood grain pattern,

The handles started as rectangular fabric covered soft n stable, with the middle area rolled over and stitched to make that part more ciylindrical

The side seams are covered in an integrated seam binding, but the seams at the base are just zig-zagged.  I suppose I could have slip stitched on another circle of fabric to cover them, but....

I'm happy to report that I have already used it as a take along knitting project bag!   

I still like the shape a lot, so perhaps I will do a peiced taupe version at some point!, maybe varying the size a bit,
I'm starting to wonder where to put all the bags that I've been sewing lately.  Any good ideas for bag organization and storage?

The Bucket Bag, a simple cylinder

This is the type of bag whose sides are sewn into a cylinder and then attached to a base. The base can vary in shape.

  Typical base shapes are circles, ovals, rectangles and squares, all of various sizes and proportions.

Although I had already sewn a fabric container with the square bottom,

 I sewed another one with a circular bottom.

I began by sewing front out of two fabrics and a piece of ribbon with soft in stable And a backing  of the black-and-white house fabric.  

At this point I decided to find out how much I could quilt on soft n stable because until now I haven't really done anything more than  straight lines on it. I found out that it is possible to free motion quilt on it with no problem whatsoever.

I sewed the long rectangle and covered the seam with a binding.  Covered the top edge with a ribbon binding.

In order to determine how large of a circle to use for the base, I looked up some formula by googling it.

This is what I found.

Basically, the diameter is the circumference divided by pi or 3.14

The length of my rectangle was 24 inches, so that circle should be 7.6 inches.  Plus another half inch for the seam allowance.

Again with the soft and stable, quilting straight lines, then cutting out the circle and I zigzagged the edges.

Okay you might notice that the base has changed fabric, on my first one I forgot to add the seam allowance.

Moving right along you can see that I zig zagged the three layers together for ease of handling as I attached the base.

I decided not to attach any handles.

The Grey Wrapped Tote Bag

Just a reminder that I am using the words "wrapped bag" to refer to a particular bag construction method, in which the front, base and back of the bag are one piece to which the two sides are sewn. 

the post where I diagrammed the various basic styles of bags is found here

I started with a pile of half square triangles made of gray and white fabrics.  I had started making them for a project, but they were going to be too small, so I set them aside... Until now.  

I wasn't sure how many of them I had, so I laid them out into a rectangle, into this very cute chevron variation that I had noticed on pinterest some time ago...

 

I dedided that this bicycle fabric would be perfect for the inside of the bag.  It was directional, so instead of using one large rectangle,  I cut two smaller pieces and seamed them in the center.  That way, when I look into the tote later, all of the bicycles will be right side up!

Then, one of my favorite parts of the whole process

--- the quilting!

Some straight line quilting following the zig zag of the chevrons, 

You can see here that I reinforced the area which will become the base by inserting some tim-tex (or decor-bond or similar stiff stuff0 in between the layers of the batting and fabric.  there is a much simpler pattern quilted on this area.

For the two side panels, I used the bicycle fabric again, for both sides, and Annie's soft n stable for the batting   It is really easy to stitch through.

I left the fabric larger on the back pieces to use as an integrated seam binding to cover the seams later on,

Here i am sewing the sides to the wrap around main part.  i had staystitching all around the central piece, so I was able to clip in to the corner area and just pivot the piece with the needle down at the corners

This shows how the extra binding fabric looks before it's sewn down,

Because i sewed the seams with the right sides facing out, the seams are on the outside of the bag where they sort of look like piping.

Instead of using fabric handles, I sewed on a pair of leather ones,

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.  it stands up on it's own, but isn't too bulky, It's a good size for using as a book bag,

I think that now I've tried a bag with the seams on the outside, I might next try to incorporate some pockets into  this style of bag.

Basic Bag Shapes

A few days ago I came up upon a blog written by L I ER here who has sewn a lot of handbags. She has categorized handbags into a number of types. I like this idea. I concur with her categorization, for the most part.    You can find her series on bag making starting here.   She focuses on making bags from a garment sewer's perspective, i.e. using heavier fabrics and lining everything beautifully.  (I tend to make bags from a quilter's perspective, using quilter's cottons, more seam bindings and fewer separate linings.)

The gist of it is to ignore all the little details such as size, straps, and to look at the basic bag structure.

 I have modified her categorizations a bit in my list, but it is not an exact science, obviously,

this is a list of bag categories.

1.  the flat bag
     the simplest type, just a front and a back.  It has no depth 

       Lots of variations

2.  the boxed bottom bag
     a flat bag is sewn extra wide, and then the base is created by "boxing" the bottom -- sewing a seam perpendicular to the side seam

3. The bucket bag
    a cylinder sewn to a base.

4. the wrapped Bag.
    the front, base and back of the bag are one piece.  Two sides are sewn on to the main piece.

5. the gussetted bag,
    the front and bag are separate pieces, the sides and bottom are a gusset that wraps around the 3 sides of the front and back.

6.  flat bag with darts.
    this starts out like a flat bag, often with a rounded form which has  triangular darts sewn to create depth in the bag.

7.  Double boxed cylinder bag.
     this is a rectangle that is sewn into a cylinder, then manipulated so that it becomes like a shoe-box shape.  think of a make-up bag, or a pencil case,

8. bags of unusual construction
    sometimes you will come across a bag made out of various units, such as a gored bag, Another example could be shapes like  orange segments, or perhaps a lot of hexagons sewn together to make a 3-D form...

Of course coming upon such a list makes me immediately determined that I have to sew one of each style in order to fully understand the structure types.  

(Let's not even get started on all the types of straps that Lier goes through on her blog, here)

A simple bag, enlarged

Last week I made a tote bag from a pattern in Yoko Saito's book, and blogged about it , here

 I liked the shape of it, but wanted to make it larger, so I sized it up a bit,

 

 This shows both bags,

This  time I used an orphan quilt block appliqued on the front panel.  It is an antique block that I bought in a whole stack of blocks a couple of years ago.  

I like the bag, but I might make one even a bit larger.  This one used the full 42" width of the fabric for the black patterned piece in the picture above, so I guess I'll need to piece it for a bigger one. 

A simple bag

Another handbag, but an unlined one this time. 

It is from the same book that I have mentioned  Strolling Along Paths of Green, , by Yoko Saito.

Looks pretty much the same as in the book, right? Just made from a  different style of fabrics.  Oh yes and no appliqué,

In the book she recommends that you make a practice copy out of muslin or just plain fabric to get the hang of how the bag is sewn, since it is not a typical construction method.

This is a good idea. It was a little tricky, but it wasn't hard. I think it could be tweaked to make bags in different sizes.

This show a water bottle on to so you can get a sense of the scale,

And here it is folded up, so it could be taken shopping! 

I don't think it's big enough to contain library books because of the size of the opening. It might be okay to fit in a magazine, since the magazine would be flexible.

I sort of want to make another one.

this handbag stuff is sort of addictive.