Messenger Bags for Nieces

Three of my nieces have birthdays in June. This year, my niece who lives locally got a jar of homemade strawberry jam and my nieces in MN got mini messenger bags. The jam is made from the strawberries that grow in my yard. Etta has come over a few times to pick her fill of berries and I thought she might enjoy having her own jar of jam as a treat when strawberry season ends. For Gracelyn and Eliza, I found some brightly colored fabric and a free pattern online and made up two messenger bags in one day. They were fun to put together and I hope the girls find them at least somewhat interesting.
The fabrics had been donated and it was a treat to find them in my stash. The ladybugs and both bag linings came from a lady here in Wilmette and the bright floral came from a co-worker's mother who was paring down her stash. The pattern called for iron-on interfacing, but I used some upholstery/curtain fabric instead and I'm pleased with the structure it provided for the bag.

Fabric for two bags

I made the bag pockets the same size, but varied the flap and strap lengths.

Top-stitching the covers

Both of these were sewn on my Bernina 1120 and I switched back and forth between two colors of thread to do the topstitching. The upholstery fabric I used for interfacing in both bags is the floral in the picture below.

Pinning the interfacing, fabric, and lining

These bags have no closures to hold the flap down, but I thought my nieces would appreciate easy access to whatever 'valuables' they chose to carry in their bags.

Strap is a bit shorter on the ladybug bag

Pink lining

I had Eliza in mind for this one

Floral bag has shorter flap and longer straps

Yellow lining

The bags were mailed out and arrived during their birthday week. I think those smiles mean these bags were a hit with the girls.

Gracelyn with her bag

Eliza and Gracelyn with their bags packed and ready to go

Bag Woven By Grandkids, Guest Post from Linda

Finished bag hanging from Necchi

Guest post by Courtney’s mother Linda

Children have an attraction to new and different tools, and big looms threaded with bright colors are a child magnet. Most of my looms are too big for a small person to handle. We made do sometimes with one child on one side of the loom throwing the shuttle to a sibling on the other side with me doing the treadling, but it was obvious to me that they needed a loom to fit. (It didn’t hurt that the little Schacht Wolf Pup was a loom I wanted anyway.)

Enter the four-shaft, six-treadle Wolf Pup. When this photo was taken, Oliver was six and Etta was four, and they could both manage to change the sheds and throw the shuttle themselves.

Etta and Oliver at the loom

When baby brother Finn was born, we decided to weave him a playmat. It would have to be three segments sewn together, because the width of the Wolf Pup is only around eighteen inches. I warped it with brightly colored 8/4 cotton and we used white cotton flake for the weft. Predictably, by the time the fabric was completely woven, Finn was walking and had no real need for a playmat. Cotton fabric is versatile—I thought it would make a useful tote bag. I have several bag patterns in my stash, this Simplicity one is from 1975.

Pattern Envelope

I sewed three segments together to make the body of the bag. Since the fabric was somewhat loosely woven, I interfaced it with an iron-on product.

Interfaced section on cutting table

The weave structure is a simple plain weave, but the irregularity of the cotton flake weft yarn combined with the shrinkage that occurs with cotton yarns when they are washed in hot water has yielded a lovely texture.

All the pieces cut

Most of the bag was sewn on my vintage Necchi BU Nova. Listening to that quiet and powerful motor is pure pleasure.

Green straps being sewn on the Necchi 

Here is the bag mostly constructed, just waiting for the side seams.

Constructed bag lying flat

I switched machines to sew the side seams. I wanted the stripes to match at the sides, and the walking foot on my Bernina 1130 keeps the top and bottom layers well matched.

Side seam sewn on Bernina 1130

The bag is lined with a pale yellow cotton, courtesy of my quilting stash. I don’t know what it will store—groceries, toys, beach items—but I hope it will be an incentive for more weaving!

Perfect pattern matching on the pocket

Weaving Bags from Plastic Newspaper Sleeves, Guest Post from Linda

Daily deliveries of newspapers and advertising circulars amount to a huge pile of plastic sleeves just for my household alone. Strolls through the neighborhood make me wonder just how many of those plastic sleeves lying in almost every lawn are being recycled. The plastic really is pretty--bright colors, soft and pliable, and a really nice size to this weaver's eye. Tada!!

Finished bag

I'd seen a few photos on Ravelry of shopping bags made from various materials, and newspaper sleeves seemed perfect. I used cotton rug warp as weft and put three yards on my little Wolf Pup LT. (Twelve ends per inch, 206 total ends, yielding 17" in the reed.) I split the bags down the sides lengthwise, which was fairly time consuming but gave me narrower stripes which should wear better.

Laying out bag strips by color

The prototype bag is tough, lightweight, and has been in use all summer by my youngest daughter for

everything from groceries to beach gear.

Prototype hanging on Wolf Pup loom

Such a good idea shouldn't be limited to one bag, so I put another, longer warp on a bigger loom.
Generous friends offered to save newspaper sleeves for me to speed up my inventory acquisition. It was great fun choosing the colors of carpet warp, and I certainly didn't limit my palette!

Cones for warp

My huge Oxaback warping mill made short work of measuring twelve yard ends in random stripes.

Oxaback decked out in striped warp

Warp chains ready to go

Beaming the warp and threading the heddles and reed took a few hours. I work slowly and meticulously, because a well-behaved warp is all important to the success of any project. Seeing the first few inches of weaving is so much fun--now I get to play with sparkly colors for hours!

Warp on loom before weaving starts

Weaving has started

The weaving is fairly quick, and the bag construction was surprisingly easy. I made my own pattern,  very similar to the Butterick B267. My Bernina 1130 handled the basic straight stitches without a hiccup. I used strapping from the local fabric store for handles and added a bit of that strapping to the top edge of the seams for reinforcement.

Bag interior

I wove a seam allowance from cotton and stitched it down so that the inside seam would be covered.

Finished interior seam

Red straps-prototype, green straps, improved construction

These are the first finished bags. I have a 12 yard warp on for another 8 or 9 bags, but only enough plastic for about half of them. It's time to collect more plastic sleeves!

New Bag, Old Pattern

I have a bag that my sister made for me years ago that is the perfect size for my laptop, folders of papers to grade, or books to return to the library. I have used the bag on car trips, to store knitting projects, and to stuff seed packets into at the annual seed swap.  For a couple years now I knew I wanted another bag, but this time I was going to have to learn how to make it myself.  A couple weekends ago I was in MN visiting my sister and family and we took a quick trip to a quilt store that was closing. While my sister perused fabrics for new bedroom curtains, I wandered the aisles trying not to think up 100 new projects that I wanted to start immediately. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw a sample bag hanging near the front desk and my sister recognized it as the same one she had made me years ago. When we got back to her house, she was able to find the original pattern/directions and I knew I had my next project. 

Upon returning to Chicago, I checked the fabric stash for remnants and this floral upholstery fabric called out to become a bag.  Another bright red fabric would work well for the lining. Both fabrics came from estate or garage sales.

"Hitchcock Stencil" pattern by Waverly Fabrics

Floral pattern looks smaller here than on finished bag

I used the kitchen floor to lay out fabric for cutting. Sometimes it's a bit difficult to work on my knees, but it does give me a nice clear work surface. My Bernina 830 was sitting on the table calling for a project, so I decided to see what she would do with the thicker fabric. For the most part she sewed effortlessly, but there were a couple hiccups when I was sewing through the bag, lining, and straps at the end. That did get to be a pretty thick pile of fabric.

Starting to sew the bag

Three sides sewn with bottom corners cut out

The process was repeated for the lining.

Bag and lining inside out

Next I made the straps.  The pattern suggested using webbing for handles, but I had just enough of the floral fabric to make fabric handles to match the bag so I went with that.

I like that the red stitching shows

The lining was then sewn into the bag and the handles were secured between the bag and the lining.

Everything has to be pinned into place accurately

The finished bag:

Inside the bag

My original bag my sister made is still a step up from mine because she put in an interior pocket and a magnetic closer for the top.  I'll have to add those improvements next time. 

A New Fall Bag

Blue flowers on the back

The bag colors fit right into the garden

This bag was inspired by fabric that a coworker gifted me earlier this year.  Thank you, M.  She gave me a bag of fabric scraps and I used three different pieces from that collection for this project. The upholstery fabric I chose for the outside of the bag had fall colors and a great floral motif. There was enough fabric for me to do a bit of fussy cutting and get the blue flowers centered on the back and the front.  The front pocket focuses on the red flowers. For the lining of the pocket, I used part of a gray curtain from my coworker's scrap bag.  The last fabric scrap I incorporated was a dark rose/rust color that became the lining of the bag.  The pattern was Butterick 5659 tote D.  I opted to leave off the front detail, but kept the pocket because you can never have too many pockets.

Bag lining color compliments the outer fabric

After making the bag, I looked around for strap options.  There was enough upholstery fabric left to make a short strap for a shoulder bag, but I decided to use that scrap with the reverse side facing out as the trim around the rim of the bag.  Mom heard me lamenting the strap options and offered to weave one on her loom.  She picked the colors and the pattern and I love how it turned out.  Thank you, Mom.  Most of the bag construction was done on my Pfaff 230, but I attached the strap by hand using Coats and Clarke extra strong button and carpet thread.

Close up on the strap detail

Mom made an extra long strap and I decided to make the bag over-the-shoulder.  Now it's the perfect length for me.  The only thing I may still add is some sort of fastener to keep the top closed.  This bag turned out great and I'm already using it to carry around my current knitting project.

Hanging out in the garden