Sew Useful Bags

 I am back with lots of new crafty ideas

It’s been a while since my last post, and now I am back with lots of new crafty ideas.

Paper crafts as well as a resurgence of sewing bags.

I have always done some sewing since a young child when my mother showed me how to make round drawstring bags and I made them regularly to give to friends with gifts in., ah those wer simple times. When I think about it they were probably made from mums leftover fabrics. After attending a 3 crafts day with my county W.I., where one of the items I made was a bag in just 2 hours my enthusiasm for sewing came racing back. So when I retired a couple of years later I bought a good basic sewing machine that I could use as a work-horse. And that was the start, although not much happened for awhile as card crafting was well established in my craft room. 

Over the first few years of retirement and of course Corona Virus lockdown, the sewing machine came out to take up trousers and a a few mends, and I bought some fat quarters from which I made some pretty origami bags that I still use for my sewing bits and bobs. 

In February I lost my husband of 45 years and Crafting has been a very useful tool on the road to recovery, but more about that in a seperate post. I say this to explain how I came to start sewing my bags. 

Previously paper crafts had been my preferred outlet as projects can be completed in a couple of hours. But as I spent more time around the house, I started to look at crafts that needed more investment and a woman can never have too many bags. 

Another reason for expanding my repertoire was the need to find something that may sell at Craft Fairs. I only do a couple a year but was in need of new inventory to try. I have found cards and paper crafts difficult to sell as so many people make cards nowadays that they are reluctant to buy them, and in the UK, scrapbooking and Journalling are not as popular as in the states. 

I started by checking out YouTube to see what was about and was very interested in a shoe bag made by Christine at Christine’s Home Affairs. I loved the simplicity and the fact that the bag expanded so was big enough to take a bottle of wine and other gifts. 

I made a couple and enjoyed the process.

Plus they really are useful.

Imagine giving a favourite bottle of wine as a gift and presenting it in one of these bags that the recipient can use again and again.

If you have someone who runs, does sports or holidays the bags make great shoe bags. 

These bags were made from reclaimed materials. New materials that were left over after a project, some purchased from Charity shops. 

I love the idea of making something useful from material that would otherwise be discarded, and started to look for other sewing projects. 

Check back for the next instalment of my new fabric projects.

Happy Crafting. 

Dee