A Different Kind of Gift Bag

Daughter-dear is a master at fabric gift bags, so when it was her special day, I couldn't resist stitching one up for her. Rather than my typical draw-string bag, I went for the Big Patchwork Tote by Ayumi Mills/Pink Penguin from Krista Hennebury's book,  Make It, Take It: 16 Cute and Clever Projects to Sew with Friends. I had made the Little Patchwork Tote a while back, and knew it wouldn't hold Rachel's gift. But at 21" wide x 13 1/2" tall, I suspected the larger one would, plus I figured it would be very reusable as a tote.

This bag goes together very nicely, and even on the second go-round, the bottom panel came together like magic. I didn't think to get a photo of that, but it's clever construction. One added note, I chose to use Pellon PF101 Shape-Flex interfacing, rather than the fusible fleece or heavy interfacing suggested. Basically, I am just really fond of the woven Shape-Flex, though it obviously made a pretty lightweight, unstructured bag, which I like.

And dare I say, I could hardly go wrong mixing and matching my Cotton + Steel prints. I'm pretty sure Rachel was good with that too.

Lucky Indeed

Recently, Windham Fabrics sent me some fabric to play with - the newly released Lucky by Lotta Jansdotter. With it, I made several projects, all from Krista Hennebury's book,  Make It, Take It: 16 Cute and Clever Projects to Sew with Friends. You can see photos of each project plus read all about them over on Windham's blog today!

As you can see, I made the Crafter's Retreat Apron by Krista Fleckenstein/Spotted Stones, the Double Scissor Keeper by Amy Friend/During Quiet Time, and the Little Patchwork Tote by Ayumi Mills/Pink Penguin. All were very fun to make, and definitely patterns I'd make again.

The Lucky Lookbook has more ideas for working with this line, and all the Lucky prints are shown right here. Enjoy!