Simple Unlined Totebag Tutorial

This is a simple bag that is perfect made out of a cotton linen blend. The fabric is just heavy enough for the bag to be light, yet sturdy enough to use for books.  If you made it in a quilting cotton, it would be good to use as a reuseable shopping bag.

 This is a picture of the bag turned inside out:

 

To make the bag, you will need the following amounts: the fabrics can all be different, or they can be all the same fabric

.5m      Outer bag: cut one rectangle 18" x 34"
.1m      Facing for upper edge of bag, : cut one rectangle 3" x 34"
.15m    Handles, 1 rectangle, 5" x 42"

Step One: prepare the handles— both handles are made from one long strip, which is cut in half after it is stitched.Press the long 5" x 42" rectangle in half lengthwise, with right sides facing out.  Then press each raw edge toward the center pressed line.  You will end up with a long piece that is 4 thicknesses, and has the right side of the fabrics facing out. Stitch close to each side of  the folded edges and then again 1/4" from the first line of stitching.  Cut the long piece into two equal lengths,

 Step Two: Make the body of the bag.  Fold the large rectangle in half, right sides together and stitch around two of the raw edge sides, backstitching at the top edge:

 Zig-zag the raw edges to prevent future fraying while using the bag.               

 Mark a 2-1/2" square on each lower corner of the bag, measuring from the seam line, as shown on the diagram:    Cut away the squares on the marked lines.  

this show the corner that has a side seam:

this shows the corner where the side is folded fabric, which you would measure the 2-1/2" from, since the fold takes the place of the seam, 

Sew the “boxed bottom” corners of the bag— turn the cut edges so that the bottom seam meets up with the side seam of the bag, and then sew along the raw edges.  Zig zag this edge.

Turn the unit right sides out,

 Step Three: Prepare the upper facing

Press under 1/4" or ½" on one long edge of the 3" x 34" rectangle.  Fold in half and sew the short side seam.  Press open the seam,  

 Pin the facing to the top edge of the body of the tote, right sides together, and lining up the side seam.  

Place the unit flat and insert the  straps in between right sides of fabric on each side about two to  three  inches from the side edge.  Make sure that each end is pulled through the same distance so that the straps will match in length.  I like to pull about an inch through, this will help make the handles sturdier. 

Sew around the top edge of the tote, using a ½" seam.

Turn the facing to the inside of the bag and press, Now the handles will be right sides up.

Top-stitch close to the top edge, and then again about ½" away from the first line of topstitching.  This will help anchor the handles.  Stitch around the pressed edge at the bottom of the facing as well. 

Press the whole bag, making creases on each edge that you want to emphasize.

 I like to add a line of stitching along the bottom side edges close to the fold to give the bag a bit more shaping. 

.... Three bags were sewn in the course of writing this tutorial....

Once you have sewn a bag or two. it isn't hard to see how you can sew many variations on it.  You could experiment by

varying the size, just keep the width of the facing and the bag equal,  (34" in the bag above)

-- making the handle longer

-- sew the body of the bag from a combination of fabrics, 

-- make a little pocket to insert in between the lower edge of the facing and the body of the bag.  It will be sewn in when you topstitch the lower edge of the facing,

..... 

Letter Tile Garland Tutorial

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Another day, another project....

I rather enjoy doing projects that are finished in a day or two.

Today I made a garland,

Yes, it says "fun with fabric", but that's just the start.

I got the idea from these paper tiles that I recently purchased at a paper shop. The box contained 80 tiles, so that there were multiples of many letters. There were also a few picture tiles to place at the beginning or end of whatever you want the garland to say.

The  box also had 5 m of a black grosgrain ribbon to string the tiles on to.

Of course my mind started churning with the possibility of making my own set of letter tiles from fabric. 

This is the process I used. 

If you would like to try it as well, these are the things you will need: 

1. Fabric scraps measuring 5 in. Square or larger

2, Fusible web, such as trans web or heat and Bond.  (By the way, if you are wondering what on earth happened to Steam a Seam this is a link to the companies website that explains what has happened and when the product will be back on the market. http://warmcompany.com/sas-update.html

3. a stiff interfacing such as Peltex or decor bond or timtex, but not a real thick heavy one, a more lightweight one that is easy to stitch through with your sewing machine.  I'm not sure what I used, -I had it in my closet for a couple of years.

4. Colorful threads in a heavier weight such as 40 weight,  30 wt or heavier

5. Freezer paper

6. Circle template, this could be something like plastic yogurt container or some other item to trace around to get the right size of circle that you will need.

I first made two practice tiles just to see how it went.

1. For each tile you need a fabric for the front, fabric for the back, and a middle layer of the stick interfacing.  Cut them all 5" x 5", Or even a little bigger on each side, I was aiming for finished tiles of 5 inches in diameter

On a light colored fabric, you can just trace around the template with the pencil, but this might be hard to see on a fabric like the dark blue in the picture.

So for dark fabrics, I cut a five inch circle of freezer paper, and then cut it down in size to about 4 3/4 inch and ironed it shiny side down onto the fabric. ( With freezer paper, when you iron it like this the wax on the shiny side sticks to your fabric temporarily.)

2.   On the light colored fabric, stitch through all of the layers about 1/8 inch inside the pencil line.

On the dark colored fabric, stitch through all of the layers just outside the edge of the freezer paper template.

Now you can trim them into a circle shape, cutting about an eighth of an inch away from the stitched line.

they should both be about 5 inches in diameter

3. Find something else to use as a 4 inch circle template. You will make a colored accent for the center of the tile.   

I used a metal jar lid.

If you haven't used fusible web before, it's not that hard. You just have to remember that it is like a two-sided tape that will stick two pieces of fabric together. You first have to apply it to the wrong side of the fabric that you want to fuse down onto the right side of your base fabric

So in the picture above, you can see that I had a large piece of yellow fabric, with fusible web ironed onto the wrong side. Then I traced around the metal circle with pencil on the paper backing.  

When I cut it out, I cut a wavy line instead of just the solid pencil line to add a bit more interest.

Peel off the paper from your shape and stick it down onto your base circle. Iron well so that it sticks.

4. Then you make the letters out of fusible web and black fabric

Letters are directional, and you are working from the back of the fabric, so you will need to reverse the letter when you trace it on the fusible web.   Then when you stick it down, the right side facing up will be the pointing in the right direction

To do this I drew a letter 3 inches tall on to some graph paper and cut it out.  Just turn it over and trace around that onto the paper backing of the fusible web. You can See the letter A has been flipped over, and traced around in the photo above.  The paper G has been cut out from the paper, but it needs to be flipped over backwards when you trace it on the fusible.

I like to keep little paper templates like this, because they take some time to make and they might be  needed again some time.  I store them in clear plastic page protectors in a binder

5. Cut letters out and peel the paper backing from the fabric, position them on your tile and Fuse them with the iron

6.  To string the tile onto the flat ribbon, you have to cut two slots in the top of the tile. 

For the first tile with the G on it I tried making two buttonholes. For the A tile I just cut two slots with an X-Acto knife. I decided that the X-Acto knife cuts looked best

7.   Stitch more lines onto the tile with different colored threads to make it look more festive.

If your machine does decorative stitching patterns, this is a perfect time to use them.  Have fun with the colors of the thread.

When I made more of the tiles, I waited to cut around the stitched circle line until everything had been fused down. This just made it a little easier to stitch the decorative thread work.

So the tiles can be reused to make other word banners. I'll just need to make some other letter tiles to have on hand.

If you do hand embroidery these would be a fun project to make with handstitching on them. Just imagine the name of a child for their room,  

I also think they would be really nice made out of felt

Dresden Plate Table Center

I made this little table Center last fall to show the colors we would be using for our block of the month program: the Saturday Surprise Sampler. 

Since then, several people have inquired about a pattern for it.  It is such a simple project that I thought I would just write a short tutorial for it.

It is basically one Dresden plate stitched down to a backing of felted wool.

I used my little Dresden plate ruler, which is an 18degree wedge ruler, from which you make 20 petals or blades to make up a circle:

There are other 18 degree rulers, like the squedge ruler which is a little longer.

 If you have a 15 degree ruler, you would use 24 petals to make up a circle

My little ruler is only 8 inches long, which would only make a circle 17 or 18 inches wide, and I wanted it a bit larger, so I just extended the side edge when I cut the pieces.

So, step by step, here we go..

1. Pick your fabrics!

The backing is felted wool, and that is probably the scarcest thing you will need, 

For the brown one above, I had an old wool blanket that I could use.  

For the one pictured here, I had purchased some off white yardage of 100% wool and washed it in hot water, and dried it on hot in the dryer to shrink it.   

I had been looking for a project to use the Bee My Honey fabrics by moda.

I decided to stay in the gray and white tones for this project,

2. Cut 20 wedges,

I cut the fabrics 12 inches wide and cut the wedges using the ruler:

You can see here how I combined it with my longer ruler to extend the side edge, extending the angle along the edge. 

Note: I used five fabrics and cut four blades from each fabric.   In the brown one above, each blade was a different fabric.  If you do it this way, you will need a 5" x 12" piece of fabric to cut the piece from.

2. Sew the ends:

Fold the long end over, backstitching at the folded end of the seam.  

Trim the corner at the folded end, and turn the point right sides out:

Press the ends, trying to center the seam.

3.  Sew the long edges of the petals, or blades together to make the circle, press the seams all to the sides, backstitching at the wide ends, 

The circular unit should lie flat!

4. You will need a piece of fabric to place over the centre of the flower.  It could be a square, a circle or another shape if you like, 

I decided to keep the bee theme going by paper piecing a small hexi unit! 

Cut a piece of wool for the backing with a margin of at least half an inch all around it.

  Pin the sewn unit to the wool and then quilt it down.  I went all around the edges first with a straight stitch, and then did some free motion designs, 

5.  After you are done, then trim the edges of the wool about an eighth or a quarter inch beyond the edge of the fabric edge, 

That's all there is to it really, I hope you give this project a try!