Sewing a Minibag: Patchwork Style with Fabric Scraps
About a year ago, after my first long weekend at the Sewing & Stitchery Expo with my mom, I found a new interest in patchwork sewing. I'm a country girl at heart, full of thrift and an uncanny attraction to hodge-podged colors and fabric, so it was natural that I picked up a copy of Patchwork Style: 35 Simple Projects for a Cozy and Colorful Life
by Suzuko Koseki. I love the books series Make Good: Crafts + Life and am especially enamored with Linen, Wool, Cotton: 25 Simple Projects to Sew with Natural Fabrics
and Carefree Clothes for Girls: 20 Patterns for Outdoor Frocks, Playdate Dresses, and More
. Additionally, a couple years ago I bought an outrageous number of fabric sample books from the Creation Station, the kind provided to wholesalers to choose what they'll order, and while Alyssa was visiting we pulled out the samples and she organized by color. This is only a small portion.
We decided a project was in order and she chose Minibag, a small quilted handbag with a zipper, gusset, and lining. An adventurous jump!
I was a little annoyed that the book didn't include actual pattern pieces but measurements for the geometric shapes. The measurements didn't include seam allowance so we had to calculate a 1/4" addition for each side for each piece, and realized after the fact that the handle piece was mentioned later in the sewing description as needing to be cut larger than shown in the diagram. But we managed. The basis for the bag is a quilted log cabin square with the addition of a gusset and zipper. Above you can see the zipper and right piece of the gusset laying on the Singer sewing machine. Here's the nearly finished project.
I didn't have double fold bias tape and don't feel like hacking a piece of fabric to make some so I'll bind it later. For now the raw edges are hidden inside the bag and I'm ok with it. Here it is finished!
The other side:
And the bottom:
I think this little bag will be perfect as makeup bag for traveling, or even better, a sock knitting project bag! There's enough space inside for a small skein of yarn and project. Overall it moved fairly quickly once all my pieces were calculated and cut, and it only fabric used was a fat quarter for the lining, gusset and handles plus scraps for the log cabin square. Fun and easily repeatable. I think I'll make myself pattern pieces so it will go more quickly next time. We did write down the pattern piece measurements after calculating the difference between the provided measurements (for final product) and what we needed.
It's time for my machines to get serviced. The old Singer 66-18 I bought secondhand stopped working just as I approached the final sewing phase and I switched to the Bernina 1060 that was my sweet 16 gift. That thing is a workhorse! The Singer is too... but it needs some special attention to get in shape.
by Suzuko Koseki. I love the books series Make Good: Crafts + Life and am especially enamored with Linen, Wool, Cotton: 25 Simple Projects to Sew with Natural Fabrics and Carefree Clothes for Girls: 20 Patterns for Outdoor Frocks, Playdate Dresses, and More. Additionally, a couple years ago I bought an outrageous number of fabric sample books from the Creation Station, the kind provided to wholesalers to choose what they'll order, and while Alyssa was visiting we pulled out the samples and she organized by color. This is only a small portion.
I was a little annoyed that the book didn't include actual pattern pieces but measurements for the geometric shapes. The measurements didn't include seam allowance so we had to calculate a 1/4" addition for each side for each piece, and realized after the fact that the handle piece was mentioned later in the sewing description as needing to be cut larger than shown in the diagram. But we managed. The basis for the bag is a quilted log cabin square with the addition of a gusset and zipper. Above you can see the zipper and right piece of the gusset laying on the Singer sewing machine. Here's the nearly finished project.
It's time for my machines to get serviced. The old Singer 66-18 I bought secondhand stopped working just as I approached the final sewing phase and I switched to the Bernina 1060 that was my sweet 16 gift. That thing is a workhorse! The Singer is too... but it needs some special attention to get in shape.
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