Drumming to the beat

My younger son has been doing drum lessons for a few months now, and really enjoying it.

We recently got him some proper drum sticks to practice with, so I made him a case for them to keep them together in his school bag.

He chose the fabric, and I made a long skinny pouch with a dome and some padding.

Swimming Bags and some Applique

A fun project that I took I while to get photos for was the boy's Swimming bags.

These are one of those projects I had good intentions of making for a Christmas or birthday present at some point, but actually only got made right before they needed them for school swimming lessons.

No particular pattern was used - I just measured off a draw string bag I had that looked to be about the size I wanted, and fudged it from there.

Both bags have a waterproof lining, so they don't get everything else in their school bags wet.

The main fabric shell is french seamed, with the loops for the ties to go through caught in the side seams.
In one of them, I appear to have sewn the main fabric and lining as one, and in the other the lining is loose and just caught in the stitching channel at the top that the draw strings go through.

Both function fine, and I haven't noticed any difference in waterproof-ness.

I appliqued their names on the front.

For this I printed out their names in REALLY LARGE font, and  then traced this on to some interfacing. I ironed the interfacing to the wrong side of the main fabric, and pinned a piece of contrast fabric to the right side of the fabric.
I sewed around their names from the wrong side, and then satin stitched over the first line of stitching from the right side.
Final step was cutting away the extra fabric from around the letters to reveal the names.

Morsbags

I happened to be looking for a free grocery bag pattern on the internet a little while ago, to use up some fabric stash. In my haphazard, one link leads to another to another to another, I came across the site for Morsbags.

The pattern was a simple, no-frills job that suited my purpose.

But then I got to reading some of the information on the site, and was incredibly impressed with what they are trying to do, and have so far achieved.

Their blurb;

Morsbags are handmade from recycled material, meaning it is completely unique. Over 175,000 morsbags are now being used worldwide (as of July 2015).

Can you sew? Go to www.morsbags.com to download the free pattern and make morsbags from old curtains, duvet covers, tablecloths etc.

This is a positive way to reduce the hideous number of plastic bags being used and to keep textile waste out of landfill - 1 million plastic bags are consumed per minute globally - of which hundreds of thousands end up in the oceans.

The idea is to get together with people in your local community, eat cake and make reusable morsbags and then give them away for free.

I really love the concept of recycing old textiles to make them - Nan's old flowery duvet, those questionable 90's curtains, and then giving them away by guerilla bagging people!

The 'giving away for free' is their main point of difference, with the idea that people will be a bit shocked to receive something handmade free, and perhaps think on the re-usable bag message a bit more than if they just went and bought one themselves.

If you are interested in making some for yourself or to giveaway, or even just have some unloved fabric that could be recycled into bags by someone else, all the details are on the Morsbags website, where you can also find groups near you if you want to join rather than play along at home.

** I am making bags myself to give away because I think this is a really good cause, but this is not a sponsored/promotional type deal. Just me being overly enthusiastic!!

Skirt Bag

After my previous bag was getting a bit untidy looking, I decided to make myself a new bag. I prefer a cross body style and the Michelle Patterns Skirt Bag was just what I was after.

After some too-ing and fro-ing on fabric choice, I chose a cotton drill with a vintage cotton reel print that I found at Spotlight. The lining is in a matching purple colour.

As always, the instructions in the Michelle Patterns are clear and well thought out, and produce a tidy end product.
There are included a few different ways to finish the inside pockets - either leave as one large pocket, or include pen slots and a smaller pocket. I did one of each, but would break up the larger pocket next time as it flops open a bit.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and it has generated some positive comments from people who have seen me wearing it.