Letting the Fabric decide the project

New small tote bag for a little

Recently I purchased a couple of lots of fabric on Ebay. As remnant boxes you just get a description of the types of sizes you will get and a weight. 

The first box arrived very quickly and when I opened it up it was a bit like Christmas, not knowing exactly what you were going to get. It turned out to be velvety soft furnishing fabrics and some lining fabric. The pieces were good size and good quality fabrics. At first i was a little disappointed as I use mainly prints to make colourful bags. But the value was definitely there so I packed it away to consider what I would make with it. 

A few days later I suddenly thought about the fabric again and realised the density and backing on the fabric meant it did not fray and therefore any bag made from it would not necessarily need lining. So to prove this theory I went out a cut a quick shopper bag and stitched it up. Just one piece of fabric 18” x 36” and also cut 2 handles 4”x 20” . The handles were made very quickly by folding into the middle and over again and stitching both sides.

Next i sewed the handles either end of the fabric, then stitched the sides. Turned the bag in the right way and top stitched the top of the bag. A very basic shopping bag but super quality and designed cut and sewn in less than an hour and half. 

Here it is 

It’s a lovely shade of blue and a great shopping bag size. 

This cheered me up and i then decided the fabric was too good for shopping bags,  I would use it for tote bags, I would line them and add pockets inside for a useful everyday bag. I don’t actually have time to make these totes yet as I am concentrating on Christmas makes at the moment. 

But I did make some jewellery purses to add to the patterned purses I had made previously and, which, I used at the August Craft Fayre the jewellery gift items I sold (which are sold with a selected jewellery pouch). All the customers chose the velvet purses over the patterned fabric purses,  so I will need to make more for the next Fayre. 

Here is a selection of the jewellery purses used for jewellery sales . I display one of each fabric I have and replace after each sale. 

So what I had thought was a disappointing batch of fabric has turned out to be lovely quality and a pleasure to use.

Back soon with another surprise item.

Happy Crafting 

Dee