Antique Wood Trunk

After/before antique wood chest/trunk, no lid, torn and chipped veneer, which was glued down and stapled down in places, and I didn't remove the metal. It's expensive to find real wood and cast iron

Hot towel, iron, chisel to remove veneer. Washed. Sand with electric sander. Oak varnish.

Measured sides, sewed a bag with drawstrings from a cotton suiting I had in the attic, cream  with white pinstripe, I like neutrals as they're good for small spaces, everything matches, unisex.

Denim Bag Eco

 I had leftover dead stock denim from sewing Mr W's brown shopping bag. I don't like to hoard scraps, especially denim. It was chocolate brown, I used the reverse for the lighter shade. The lining was from a 2nd hand bundle, dark green to me is "school jumper" so again I used the reverse, now it looks camouflage.

 I ran out of clothes to recycle, and I wanted to make 2 bags simultaneously to save prep work time, so I used another deadstock denim for the grey, which I had in the attic.

I interfaced the straps, top, bottom, and top of lining pockets with light interfacing to prevent stretch. Topstitching and edge stitching in brown.

Recycle - Denim Shopper

2 x Mr W's old jeans (grey and charcoal, 2 x 2nd hand cotton placemats and 2 x cotton 2nd hand napkins for pocket linings, 2nd hand cotton for bag lining. 

I interfaced the handles, bag and top of pockets. As I was using jeans, I had to cut the bag outer in 2 parts with a seam allowance and piece. I topstitched the handles in charcoal Gutermann thread and medium grey for the bag.

I edgestitched the bottom where the box corners meet, but pressed the sides down for a softer look. 

Mr W is going to take this to the craft fair for handmade shopping!

Storage Packs

I made two cotton canvas storage bags the same in the size large. This size fits fat quarters bundles!

Useful and reliable basket weave cotton from Minerva for review - thank you. Both sides of this fabric are pretty similar, so you can make bags without linings, then just bind the raw edges inside, or outside as per the pattern, if preferred.

I didn't have soft and stable, so I used light interfacing for the grey pieces. Instead of a mesh lid, I cut 2 of the bottom panel for each bag.

The lining is seersucker I purchased 2nd hand "1960s/1970s.

I used zip tape and fastened on the endings myself, firstly, a 36-40 inch metal zip is £10 each and secondly, I wanted to make a few bags in different sizes, including navy blue packing cubes for my friend who loves outdoors.

I added a folded in half square of grey canvas as an overlap to the end of the zip, as I cut them too short (pattern advised to hang the zip off the end of the bag, and I had cut the zip tape exact).

There is a video for instructions but I didn't use it as I've made a lot of purses and tote bags, and many bindings!

Now to decide which pattern to use for the remainder of the fabric! It could be anything, craft or clothing.

I used yellow and grey print Art Gallery Fabric poplin for the binding.

Denim Shopper

Mr W's new denim shopper. Tote / shoulder bag made from a deadstock remnant of soft denim, only had enough for 1 bag. The cotton lining is 2nd hand, it arrived with a quilt top made by someone else I purchased & quilted/bound for charity. I interfaced the facings and the top of the pockets, but usually interface the whole outer. I edge stitched the creases.

Tote and Zip Purses

I picked up this Laura Ashley pdf pattern S9814 in a Simplicity USA pdf sale. I made a Gift for Mr W, a tote and a matching medicine bag (I don't use makeup bags and it reminded me of my fisher price first aid kit in the 80s so I renamed). I used a denim remnant. I don't have webbing as I make straps myself from interfacing and fabric, but I didn't need interfacing for this rigid denim. I interfaced the front and back pocket edges. Through taking the photos, I saw drag marks, so I interfaced the centre part of the bag where the straps sit using large offcuts of interfacing I had saved from other projects. lined the pockets in the Halloween cotton and cut the top of the pockets 2cm longer and the lining 2cm shorter so that I could sew the lining to the raw edge and fold the edge down. I used the denim reverse for the contrast. To cut your own 1 inch webbing, cut 2 of the length (65 or 60 inches? The pattern said 65 inch or 150 cm and that's not the same length) X 4 inches then fold the raw edges to the inside, fold in half and topstitch. The pattern is designed for quilting, so I thought it would be resourceful to use up scraps for patchwork bags.

Bags for Mr W from his old jeans! I interfaced the top of the bags and the overlay too because the denim had a little stretch. I used a leaf embroidery stitch. Same pattern but I used a smaller seam allowance.