Drawstring Gear Bag: A Tutorial

This year Ms Moo started both dancing and netball. Both of these activities are after school and she needed a bag she could take her "gear" to school in as well as put her uniform in once she'd changed. The poor love was using a plastic shopping bag, so I wanted to make her something a little more permanent.

Moo modelling her bag. Just the right size 

I made this bag using an orphan block that I had planned to turn into a cushion cover which I had lying around in my garage sewing room plus some of the fabric left over from my #100days100blocks quilt. It has a drawstring top to keep everything in nice and tight and the drawstrings are attached to the bottom of her bag so she can carry it over her shoulders.

It was a big success and of course I also have an order in from Ms Bird for one of her own.

Strips added to the top and bottom of an orphan block for the front

Pieced back from matching scraps

It was such a fun and fast little make, I thought I'd share how I made it. If you make one, I'd love to see yours too!


Materials

Outer Fabric:

• Cut two 16.5" x 20.5" outer fabric (I pieced mine, but you can use your favourite print - whatever floats your boat)

Interfacing: 

• Cut two pieces of interfacing the same size as your outer fabric. I used SF101. Note that mine was precut and slightly smaller than the outer, so I just aligned it down the middle.

Lining:

• Cut two 16.5" x 20.5" lining fabric

Contrast fabric to run drawstrings through and to attach handles:

• Cut two  3" x 15" contrast fabric
• Cut one 4" x 6.5" contrast fabric

Other:

• 4m thick cord cut into two 2m pieces

Assemble:

1. Fuse interfacing to the outer fabric per manufacturers instructions
2. Prepare the channels for the drawstrings
• Take the two pieces 3" x 15" contrast fabric and fold over 1/4" towards the wrong side on each of the short ends. Top stitch in place. 
• Fold each piece in half , wrong sides together and press
• Align raw edges of prepared contrast fabric with the top centre of each outer piece and stitch in place with a 1/4" seam allowance
3. Prepare the loop for the straps
• Take the 4" x 6" contrast fabric and fold in half lengthwise, wrong sides together; press. 
• Open and fold edges in to centre; press. Fold back in half lengthwise and top stitch down edges. 
• Fold in half to form a loop
• Align raw edges of loop with the bottom centre of the back piece of outer fabric and stitch in place with a 1/4" seam allowance
4. Assemble the bag
• Lie the fabric lining down face up and place the outer on top, right sides together. Take care at this point to ensure that the fabric is the right way if you are using a directional print. Sew together along the top with a 3/8" seam allowance. Press seams open
• Lie the assembled outer/ lining pieces wrong sides together and stitch together with a 3/8" seam allowance leaving a 4" gap at the bottom of the lining for turning. When pinning together make sure that the seams between lining and outer match on each piece to get a nice finish.
• Turn right way out through the gap you have left, pushing out the corners and sew the gap together. Press the bag
• Push the lining  into the bag and press around the top to get a nice sharp edge.
• Topstitch around the top to keep the lining in the bag
5. Attach handles
• Using a pin thread the cord through the channels and tie through the loop at the bottom
• Repeat in the opposite direction with the second piece of cord. 
6. Use and enjoy. If you make a version, tag it with #moobirdgearbag so I can check it out!!

Ready to use

Shape Family Challenge

Ta da! Scraping in by the skin of my teeth, here is my entry for the Shape Family Challenge run by the amazing Jodi (@Tales of Cloth).

All finished, I love this ranbow-y goodness

Made with Liberty fabric and a super light chambray, these were a match made in heaven and sew lovely to set. When I pulled the papers out they pressed so lovely and flat.

The premise of the challenge is to take one of Jodi's mixed pack of shapes (a Shape Family Pack) and make your own pattern. It certainly was fun coming up with it, although my husband did wonder what on earth I was doing.

Playing aound

The pillow back is a gorgeous spotty chambray that I am also going to make a dress out of (one day) - I think a Tea House dress, but I am going off topic...

Mmm, delicious

I straight line quilted it with a lilac Aurifil thread.

The pillow finished at 22.5 x 23.5 inches.

I've loved the peaceful nature of hand-stitching. It allows me to sit in the same room as my husband and still sew. I am a little sad now that I am finished, I think I may have to start a new project. Once I finish a few more WIPs. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Mini Quilt

This is my second entry for this years' Blogger's Quilt Festival.

I made this little fishy while I was on family holidays earlier in the year. It is based on a Studio Cockatoo print that I have hanging in my sewing room. We were going to be away for a few weeks and I figured I needed some hand sewing for while we were away.

This tiny little mini is hand pieced and only 7.5" x 10.5".

You can read all about the process here.

Go and check out the other great entries in the festival and a big thank you to Amy for hosting. 

Fast finish: Marmalade pillow

A good long while ago I won some Marmalade Mini charm packs and a FQ or Marmalade fabric from Mary on Lake Pulaski.

I sorted the charms into colour groups and made some granny squares. But when I sewed them together I didn't love it. So much so that I put it away and let it languish, unloved in my sewing room.

The offending mini - ugh

Six months or so later and needing a fast finish I decided to just get it done. I looked at it and figured out what I wasn't loving - the sashing between the blocks was too wide and it was just throwing out the balance of everything. So I unpicked and the sashing, slimmed it down (diet for quilts?), sewed it back together and was in love.

I finished it off with some serpentine quilting and ta-da!! A pillow top I loved.

Much better with the skinny sashing

The backing is a great match and I had the perfect green zipper on hand

The moral of the story - if it isn't singing to you, leave it and come back and fix it later. I am so glad I did because I am very pleased with how it turned out. 

Here Fishy, Fishy

Let me introduce to you Here Fishy, Fishy. My entry in this year's Umbrella Prints Trimmings Challenge.

Here Fishy, Fishy

You have to get a shot of the fish near the water, right?

A while ago now I bought this print from Studio Cockatoo and as soon as I saw it I thought "That would look really cool turned into a paper pieced pattern". But then life, and other quilty projects got in the way.

My inspiration shot, and some of the lovely things people have made for me (including my unicorn from Moo)

Fast forward x number of months (years?) and I see on Instagram that the guys at Umbrella Prints have launched their Trimmings Challenge. Basically, you buy a Challenge Pack (off cuts of their fabrics), use it to make something awesome and share it with the world. Now I have had grand plans to enter the challenge before. I have even bought one of those cute little packets in the past (with names like Mountain Girl and Luxury Cherry Bubble Cake who could resist?) but stalled when it came to actually making something. This year though, when I looked at the options and saw all those lovely shades of orange, my mind went to the fish print, angels sang, the clouds parted and a beam of celestial light shone down striking me with inspiration, etc etc, and I knew what I wanted to do. Couple that with the fact that I was going on a family holiday for a couple of weeks and needed some hand sewing and I had a plan.


Basically I used a simplified version of the print as a template for EPP. Even so it was pretty challenging as some of those pieces were small! The whole exercise was made extra tricky by the fact that I didn't take any scissors away with me - I had to trim all the fabric with thread snips. Needless to say, I made more progress once I got home.

When I was taking a break from this, I did some hand sewing (sneaky holiday shot)

I used the Luxury Cherry Bubble pack in combination with the contents of my scrap bin to make the fish.

Work in Progress

For the background I used one of the print's from Jeni Baker's Color Me Retro line. I think it is the perfect print to use - it certainly made me think of splashing water. As an aside, this was the very first fabric bundles I ever bought, and Jeni's blog was one of the very first quilting blogs I started following. Awww. That fabric had been in my stash for WAY too long.

The finished top

Once it was all pieced I knew I didn't want to have a binding - the piece is quite small and delicate and I thought binding would be too chunky so I sewed the backing on right sides together and flipped it inside out. I then set to work quilting it. I used four different colours of thread on the fish and four for the water, so eight all up!! 

My thread collection... in a fish bowl

I went for jagged triangular shapes in the water and then gave the fish body some dimension by quilting in some contours. I even FMQ-ed around the fish's goggle eye. That was scary since I hadn't done FMQ before and was worried I would ruin the hours and hours of hard work. But I just dialled the speed on my machine waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down and took it really easy. It isn't perfect, but it is perfect for what I wanted. With all that quilting, at least I know my hand piecing isn't going to come apart!

Eye FMQ detail

I am super pleased with how my little fish turned out. My husband asked who it was for and made a big sad face when I said it was for me, and I am taking that as a huge compliment because he isn't a quilty kind of guy.

Head over to #umbrellaprintstrimmingschallenge to check out the other pretties that people have made (there are some AMAZING things) and be inspired for next year!

QUILT STATS
Name: Here Fishy, Fishy
Pattern: A simplified version of the Goldfish 1 from Studio Cockatoo
Method: EPP
Dimensions: Approx 7.5" x 10.5"
Fabric: Umbrella Prints 2016 Trimmings Challenge Pack (Luxury Cherry Bubble Cake), various scraps (fish) and the Dulcette print in Lobella from Color Me Retro
Quilting: Machine, Aurifil 50 wt in 2024, 2720, 5006, 4093 (water) and 2135, 2145, 1133, 2225 (fish)

Jelly Roll Slice Shortcut Quilt Blog Hop

I was super excited at the start of the year when I was approached by The Fat Quarter Shop to participate in a blog hop for a new Jelly Roll pattern that they had coming out.

I am delighted with this little quilt, which was snaffled up by Bird as soon as she saw it

 I have seen various strip pieced quilts in the past, but could never really get my head around how they came together in the end. On top of that I have some jelly rolls and I really do not know what to do with them other than use them for binding, so they just sit there gathering dust. Curiosity piqued (and ego stoked, let’s be honest), I decided to jump on board. Let’s not mention all the WIPs that I posted about a few weeks ago, shhhhh, be nice!

Anyway, when the pattern came I gave it a good read and got started. This quilt came together fast! I made the crib size which only requires 17 strips plus your background fabric and the top itself got put together in two nights after work / kids in bed – so not a lot of time. The thing I loved the most about this pattern was the really clever pressing instructions. If you follow them, when it comes time to piece your quilt top all of your seams nest together nicely, which makes matching things up really easy. The pattern is also quite forgiving. For some reason I really struggle to sew long straight lines, which is what you have to do when you are strip piecing, so some of my blocks were a little wonky when it came time to put it all together, but I don’t think that is evident at all in the finished product. I really love this quilt. To me, it reminds me of stack of books. I am a bookworm and I do love a good pile of books.

Hmmm, the stack of books next to my bed isn't quite as pretty

So onto my quilt...I was lucky enough to win a custom 2.5 inch strip bundle from the lovely Jennie at Clover & Violet as part of one of the Sew Mama Sew giveaway days. But since I didn’t know what to do with them, they kind of languished. I had just enough strips for the project, and they had been expertly curated by Jennie in a lovely bundle of bluey-aqua, purple and yellow (so I can take absolutely no credit for the lovely fabric choices here). Bam! Fabric decision made. I used this beautiful grey fabric from Elizabeth Hartman’s Rhoda Ruth collection for my background. I think it makes the colours pop and is lovely and soft while still adding a bit of visual interest. I had a bit of extra background fabric left over so I used it to add 2.5” borders to my quilt, which took the finished size to around 45” square.

I backed it in the Ikea Britten print (LOVE it! I bought 6 metres from Ikea the other day) and I love that it was wide enough that I didn’t have to piece the back.

I used scraps left over from the quilt top to make the binding, combined with some delicious AMH Loominous that I had left over from binding my Sea Star quilt, I knew it would come in handy!!

Look at that texture! This may be my new favourite for fast quilting

I used an all over serpentine stitch to quilt it in Aurifil 2600. The soft grey was a perfect match for the quilt – it blended perfectly with the background and was subtle enough that it went well with all the different colours in the quilt. I had been unsure about how to quilt it, but when I saw Megan @ Canoe Ridge Creations’ True Love Mini quilt on Instagram, I thought “Jackpot!”.  Embarrassingly, I had seen quilts on Instagram quilted with a serpentine stitch before and thought that  it looked quite awesome but I didn’t think my machine had that stitch and I was annoyed about that. I thought how could my fancy pants machine not have such a simple stitch? Um, it did. Oh. On the chart it just looked a bit like a zig zag. So all this time I haven’t used it when I could have! Which is annoying because it is AWESOME for quilting. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but it seemed really fast – much faster than a straight stitch, which doesn’t really make sense, but there you go. It adds a lovely texture and again is quite forgiving.

I just wanted to show off the lovely blooms on my Mandevilla

Make sure you go and check out all the other quilts on the hop - I know I will be. 

Taunja of Carried Away Quilting
Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs
Terri Ann of Childlike Fascination
Eileen of Eileen in Stitches
Cristy of Love You Sew
Hayley of Moobird Stitches (that's me!)
Shelley of The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts
Kathryn of Kathryn Jones Quilts

If you want to make your own Jelly Roll Slice, here are the details on where to get the pattern or find the video or get a quilt kit or fabric. To celebrate this launch, The Fat Quarter Shopwill be having a 15% off Jelly Roll sale going through to Sunday 28^th Feb, no coupon code necessary.

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Jelly Roll Slice by Fat Quarter Shop

Size: 45” x 45”

Fabric: Various strips gifted to me by Jennie @ Clover & Violet

Background: Rhoda Ruth Necklace in Grey

Backing: Ikea Britten

Binding: Scrappy

Quilting: Aurifil 2600 50wt

So there you have it, if you have someone having a baby or have stacks of jelly rolls in your life this is a good pattern for you!