Distracted by bags

I’ve recently been trying to find ways of using up a lot of old fabric scraps, and have thought of recycling them into shopping bags.  Cherri recommended this pattern for a simple tote bag

http://www.quiltingdaily.com/media/p/22016.aspx

which I found very straightforward to make, and a good basis for a decorative pieced shopping bag

 However, as this was supposed to be just an exercise in recycling and not a serious project, I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on it, and instead of piecing fabric together to make the bags, I tried a kind of “faux-patchwork”. This just involved stitching fabric scraps onto a backing fabric, using decorative patchwork stitching. It turned out well and the work went very fast

Bags made of fabric scraps stitched together with a faux-patchwork technique

However, although I liked the results, it didn’t really use up a lot of scraps and I reckon I would have had to make about a hundred bags to make any serious inroads on my scrap store. Also I felt like getting back to embroidery. But the tote bag pattern was well suited to embroidery – that large central panel was just the right size for a piece of embroidery done with the large Innovis hoop

So I drew out a simple vase of flowers in a Jacobean style, stitched it out twice (one for each side of the bag) and made it up into a bag with an old piece of denim that I‘ve had around for years.

The Jacobean vase embroidery, and the denim bag made from it

I can think of a lot of designs that would go well on bags like this and I'll start thinking of some new approaches. However for the moment that’s enough bags. I may do some more later to go into a local craft show this autumn, but now I really have to get on with projects like the Optical Goat and the Charley Harper bellpull panel

 

 

Comments

[Cherri]

Mia the bags are brillant! I actually love the pieced work ones the best. Very colorful and it looks like you are getting the sewing down perfect! I like the second bag with the embroidery in the middle also. Was thinking that perhaps some pieced work on the sides would have really brought out the design in the middle.