I decided to round out my over-achiever Mom streak by hand-making holiday gifts for the Larva’s daycare teachers. I made lunch bags and filled them with chocolate chip cookies. I used the bag pattern from Pink Penguin with some really cute cotton prints I picked up at Joann.
I love how these came out!
After my bangle bags were posted to the jade forum by my jade sisters, I got some requests to make more. I had some free time after Halloween, so I whipped up a few. It would have gone fairly quickly except that my maternity leave ended and I went back to work 2 weeks ago. I’ve been completely swamped trying to catch up. I’m actually really enjoying being back at work, but it’s left very little time for sewing, sadly.
Here are photos of the bags I just finished. I used fabric from Slipper Roses by Tanya Whelan.
Here’s bag design #1.
I love jade, and if I wasn’t spending all my extra money on pretty fabrics, I’d probably be spending it on on jade jewelry. I’m part of a forum for ladies who love jade and I’ve gotten to be good friends with a few of the members. A bunch of them got together and got me a gift when the Grub was born and it was the sweetest thing ever! It’s so amazing how the internet can bring people together, and it is awesome. =D
I’m on a roll with the thank you gifts so for my dear jade sisters, I wanted to make some bangle bags for them to carry their bangles when traveling. I used this bag tutorial by KAU UZÊDA and made some small modifications.
I needed to make 3 bags so I knew I was going to need a fair bit of fabric. I had just purchased a fatquarter set of Scarborough Fair by Robyn Pandolph which was perfect. I love the pastel vintage-y feel of these fabrics and it ended up working great for these bags.
I was going to make each bag with 5 bangle pouches but 5 just looked to be too many so I went with 4.
In the bottom of each pouch, I put an elastic loop and a button to loop the elastic around to secure the bangle. Jade is actually a very hard stone and I know these pouches will be used mostly to hold jade bangles, but I didn’t want to take the risk of damaging them, so I made sure to use plastic buttons. I have a lot of Chinese knotting thread sitting around, so I used that for the pouch ties.
Sewing with a newborn attached to you 24-7 hasn’t been easy but I’ve been making it work. I have mastered the art of sewing one handed while holding the Grub on a boppy pillow. Well, as long as it’s sewing in straight lines… =D
One of my recent projects is a thank you gift for my obgyn. I know she likes to knit, so I thought a Knitting needle roll would be perfect. Unfortunately I am not a knitter so I didn’t really have any idea what a knitter would need. Thankfully there are some wonderful tutorials out there for knitting needle rolls. I decided to use the one from Stitch Parade and to make the cover a quilted patchwork piece.
I’m very fond of this design with the rows of patchwork diamonds and I’ve used it for other bags. The cover fabric is Marie Antoinette By Deborah Edwards.
For the inside, I used cute bunny fabric from the Windsor Lane Collection by Bunny Hill. I don’t have any knitting needles, so I used chopsticks to test the pockets. =D
Now that my baby quilt is done, I’ve been sewing bags again. The two I just finished are barrel pouches that are supposed to be pencil pouches, but could really be used for anything. I made 2 of them one right after the other and I’m afraid my first attempt (the green one) was definitely a trial run. I’ve been pawning off my trial runs on my friends so I hope Mi doesn’t mind that hers didn’t come out as nice as my second attempt. ^^;
I love how the the quilted diamond pattern came out, and I’m actually a bit sad that I decided to use pink for my second run instead of a color I like so that I could keep it. (I’m really not a fan of pink so that one is going on my Etsy shop.) This was the last of most of my Windsor Lane Bunny Hill quilting fabric so I guess I will have to find some other fabrics to make one for myself.