Seeing spots - Library Bags

Howdy there. I realised that I have everything for school except library bags for the kids. Last year I bought some small Disney un-inspired bags which aren't going to do the job this year. So, I spent the last two days wondering and agonising over library bags/totes. Finally, I settled upon the Purl Bee 20 minute tote, except that as I was cutting, I decided that I wanted to line the totes. So it ended being the 40 minute tote, which was probably more like the 50 minute tote as I wrestled with my overlocker. I already had the 1 inch herringbone webbing in my stash as well (just enough for all three bags). I vaguely recall buying them from ebay.

                                                

In fact, as I finished each bag they got progressively a little smaller in size. This is going backwards but I made Michael's bag last. I had this Japanese fabric in my stash from when I made the toddler bag. So I lined his bag with some black Michael Miller dots. I didn't have enough width to make it as wide as the others so I went with the panel width. It's the same picture front and back.

I also had some Matilda's own Printable fabric so I printed out some name labels on the front of each. The specifics: Go to Word, insert a rectangular shape, insert a text box using the font High Tower Text in size 48. Add another such as star or love-heart or whatever takes your fancy and when you're happy print it out. You'll have to play around with the text box so it has no outline. Maybe print it out on paper first to see how it will eventually look like.

These are the girls bags. Jacquie starts Kindy this year! I lined hers with some linen that I bought from Daiso ($3.80) and the fabric is Tanya Whelan, TW23 Dots (Grand Revival).

Mariah's one was the first one I made. It's about the size of the Purl Bee Tote and I used a basic pink spotty cotton print from Spotlight. I actually ironed on some hard stabilising fabric I bought yonks ago as well. It's rather stiff and it almost killed me to get the tension correct on my overlocker. I had loose thread everywhere and I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to adjust it properly. I eventually finished hers at night and finished the other two on Australia Day. word of caution: make sure the sticky bit is facing the fabric or you'll end up with sticky gluey stuff on your ironing board. (How am I going to iron the clothes from now on?)

I just did a standard blanket stitch around the name label. I really like the way they turned out.

It turns out I am quite the slow sewer. I tend to umm and arrgh about specifics so to cut things short I sewed up both the outside and lining fabrics separately, then I placed the lining inside the main fabric and sewed up the tops together with the overlocker. Then I sewed on the handles (yup, I twisted one of them but Jacquie won't notice, shhhh) and then turned the top down 1" and sewed the top line first and then the second line from the inside. I really love the way they all turned out. It beats buying a $3 bag from Kmart anyway, although the kids will need to bring a plastic bag to protect the books from any spills. You may like to line your bags with oilcloth (why didn't I think of that earlier? Doi!) instead.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my bags. I haven't sewn for a while but I did make Mariah some shorts from the Dana's MADE pattern. I'll show you that next. It was fun. It's been pretty hot down under but today was a cool and sprinkly day. We are celebrating Australia Day today and I am thankful to be in a country where we have freedom to be who we are and live with respect with each other and where we are safe. God bless our country.

Thanks for stopping by. School end of this week. Yayyy!