Thursday, August 13, 2009

knotty bags

You'll never guess what my kids did today, all three of them at the same time.
They napped. (I know!)
And I;

It was a nice quick and rewarding project. There was one hiccup though, I generally utilize every bit of my fabric to the full width. This was no exception, but just look what they did to the selvage on this delightful floral!


Disgusting isn't it?
That's a full inch taken up with unattractive branding. I was squeezing these out of the yard and a half, half width of each fabric left over from this baby sling so there was no way to cut around the offensive bits. (Oh right, I was going to write a tutorial for the sling...using this same fabric. I'll have to get back to you about that)
Anyway, my two bags were all put together but graffiti-ed up by the fabric manufacturer, what was I to do?
How about hiding the sin with a band of grosgrain ribbon and throwing on a few D-rings just for kicks?

Up the sides for the bag pieced front to back,


and around the middle for it's left to right handed fellow.

I'm actually quite a fan of the D-rings, you could clip your keys on there or use it to keep your sunglasses ready for a quick draw when the weather is chancy. I might just tack D-rings onto the outsides of all my existing bags. Since I'm not destined to keep either of these, I have to come up with some way to keep the D-ring idea in my life.
Next it was time to consider pockets. Trouble was, by this time the children were awake. I managed to slap a pair of pockets on each bag but don't look too closely. I eyeballed the positioning and pinned them on for sewing with an eleven month old balanced on my hip, reaching for the pins.

Then I sewed them on with that same child perched on my lap.

What I mean to say is, the pockets are crooked and the stitching in wonky.
And I'm not going to do a thing about it.

Well now, Annie? Sarah?
I hope you like them, wonky stitching and all, because they are the prizes for that contest you both won many moons ago. I don't know who's will be who's. I'm going to pack them up and shuffle them before I address the packages so it will be a surprise!
I love a surprise, don't you?
That's why I didn't send any prizes sooner. I wanted you to forget having won anything so you'd get that extra little surprise when I reminded you about it. The delay had nothing to with procrastination at all, I was just looking out for you.
You're welcome.

4 comments:

Juice said...

Do you sell your makings on Etsy? If not, you really should.

Oh - and I am sooo jealous that you got time to do something crafty.
... and that you had a contest on your blog.

Annie Jarman said...

I was SO SO hoping one of these lovelies would be mine when you mentioned they would not be yours to keep! I had forgotten till that moment and the surprise was delicious! I could care less about the wonky stitching because they are so lovely!

Thank you!!

Lauranie said...

ooohh I HATE that JoAnn's does that!! Such a waste! Very cute bags! I wish I had such a clever little reason when my poor contest winners had to wait a MONTH after they won!! Everything was made...but with 3 kids, I DREAD the Post Office!!! *shudder*

SJ said...

Emma, I'm sorry. I've been neglecting the whole blogging world as of late so I didn't even read this. But I did get my bag and I love it! Holy cow you are talented! What a lovely surprise it was. Thank you. :)