The Rest of the Purse

I finished the Gabby Bag and took it to Locally Grown Gallery in Oak Ridge yesterday. I love how it turned out. The navy blue linen is perfect for the city-scape cotton fabric. It has two zipper pockets, one inside and one outside, and two slip pockets on the inside.

This is the back of the bag with the zipper pocket showing. I get my zippers from zipit on Etsy. She sends the cute zipper charms with her zipper orders and they’re very economical and they’re YKK zippers! Love zipit.

This pattern is nice. I like the instructions and the result. The only problem I had was getting the box corner right, but that was my “skim-the-pattern-instructions-and-hope-it’s-right” attitude kicking in. It was a pain having to rip out the seams after I caught the side seam’s top-stitched edge on the bottom in the stitching for the squaring of the corners. And it’s spelled out very well in the instructions, even giving an illustration of what it should look like. I’m blaming it on all the rain we’ve had and the gloom which has me a little lethargic lately. 

We had a little visitor to our yard this week. He or she was so cute! 

Little ‘possum going to bed. 

New Bag & Wallet, Flowers & Fuzzbutt

Can you tell who keeps me company in my sewing room? Sophie has fabric clippings on her bottom. She did have more, but they fell off. She can move pretty fast when she wants to, but somehow, moving out of my way when I’m trying to walk is SO hard. She loves to look at me like I’m causing her great inconvenience. 

This gives my favorite nickname for my corgis, Fuzzbutt, a whole new meaning. 

And speaking of my sewing room, I’ve completed two more wallets and a bag with another bag on the machine. 

Yet another Necessary Clutch Wallet in a farmyard fabric with two complementary plaids.  

 

This (above) is the Marichel Hobo by RLR Creations.

I love to make bag linings with light fabrics to make it easier to find your keys. This one is especially bright. I’ve said before, I’m not a “pink” person. I had this left over from my granddaughter’s quilt (which I’ve put aside for awhile) and it matched the flowers on the outer fabric so well I had to use it. 

And my newest creation is a Rozy Wallet by Serial Bagmakers.

 

The outer fabric is cork. I had my doubts about how strong it would be, but the cork is super thin and is backed by a supple, but thick and sturdy knit. It has a wonderful hand. It seems to be very durable and is undoubtedly beautiful.

I also had some doubts about the hardware. I’ve never used a bag frame before, but it went on great. I had to finagle a bit with an awl to get the wallet into it to suit me, but it wasn’t hard, really. I stitched two lines of stitching close to the edges and it held the wallet down making it thin enough to slip in easily. A little glue and eight tiny screws later I had my first cork-and-bag-frame-hardware wallet. 

One day I will take the time and have the lights to set up a good photography area so I can get better pictures. Until then, I’m sorry about the dark photos. I’m doing the best I can right now. 

I’ll leave you today with a few pictures of my flowers. It’s been raining so much lately that I can’t get out very often. I didn’t even get ONE raspberry this year. There were a lot of them, but the critters and birds got most of them, and the rain beat off the rest. Oh, well, maybe next year.

What’s free and handy?

Interested?  I finally finished the free tutorial for this baby! The Insulated Market Bag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I last wrote about this project here. That bag has been really handy at the supermarket. I live about 20-30 minutes from the store and need to keep things cold while coming home. This little beauty does the job well.

I promised a tutorial for the bag back in February of 2017. It’s taken a year, but here it is.

Sooooooo many pictures. That shiny aluminum really reflects! I tried to get a photo of the taping of the inner Reflectix® lining, but nooooooooo! Just a bright blob. It reminded me of the old-fashioned flash bulbs that blinded you for a few minutes.

So here it is. Belated Merry Christmas or Early Easter or Happy Birthday or even Jovial Stitching!

Insulated Market Bag Tutorial–New

Insulated Bag Pattern

If the above pattern link doesn’t work, try here.  Alternate Pattern Download

If you find mistakes or anything is unclear, please let me know.