Creme and Green Tote

Anybody know the difference between "cream" and "creme"? I'm too lazy to look it up right now. Anyway...

This is a lined tote bag I've made to sell at the craft show. There's nothing too special about it--it's just pretty. The green fabric was in my late grandmother's stash, and I probably have 4 yards or more of it. The creme colored stuff is something I found at WM for $1/yd. It's nice: light yellowish linen with white cotton strings woven thru it. (Just be careful not to pull the strings, or you'll have a run!) There will be a matching wallet for this, b/c it doesn't have any pockets.

This bag has a flat bottom, achieved by folding the corners in in triangles and securing them to the bottom of the bag. I really like the look of french seams, mainly b/c it resembles boning, which is nowhere to be found in my little town or the surrounding area. Gives it a nice, crisp look.

Not to stray too far from the original purpose of this blog, I'll add the cost to construct: about 50 cents, total, maybe less b/c there's quite a bit of the creme fabric leaft over, which is the only thing I spent money on for this project. It took about an hour to make, probably, maybe a little more.

Flat Bags

I am going to try my hand at selling some handmade things at a craft show the weekend of November 15th in Moberly, MO. My wares will include wallets, purses, bags, and a few baby bonnets. These are a few of the items I've made to sell. I'm calling them "flat bags" b/c that's exactly what they are. They are basically two panels of fabric with stabilizers in between, folded in half and sewn together at the edges, with pockets on the insides. The one with the square applique also has a pocket on the back of the outside. They are made of red corduroy and cotton fabric. There's one more in the works, but our camera is on the major fritz so I snap whenever it'll allow.

This idea came out of necessity. I was always having to unload my wallet, notebook, phone, and a pen from the diaper bag whenever I left my daughter in the nursery or at home with my husband. So I made myself a large tote with lots of pockets for a diaper bag, but to avoid packing around a handful of loose things whenever I'm seperated from the babe I made a small, slim bag to fit inside of the big tote. (Someday I'll take pics of the ensemble and put them on here!) Now when I don't have/want the big bag with me, I just lift the small one out and go! While these bags aren't ideal for a load of stuff, they're perfect for smaller quantities. They fit into small places and the hard sides mean that you can put papers or paperback books inside and they won't get mangled. I love them!

Pink Hanging Organizer

This is another Christmas present, for another sister. (Same sister as the teddy bear wallet below.) It does not have straps on the back to roll it up with, like the blue one does.

That little thing in the second pocket is a drawstring bag. I trimmed it with red ribbon. Everything I used came from the estate auction and was insanely cheap.

This is a matching snap closure bag. It was the first of its kind, so It wasn't perfect.

The inside of the little bag. Trimmed with creme ribbon.

All the ribbon and fabric came from the auction, so the total cost was pennies and time. But I'm very happy with how these turned out.

Honestly, you could make one of these at home using things you already have. A bedsheet or towel makes a perfect back panel, and you can use anything for the pockets that will give you enough material: men's shirts, pillowcases, pieces of a sheet, towels, tableclothes.... I could go on. Go thru your Goodwill box. You're likely to find a hanging organizer in there! :D

Blue Hanging Organizer and Matching Snap Bags

I got this idea from ReadyMade Magazine. The organizer is very very easy to make--just sew smaller rectangles of fabric onto one large rectangle. They say to use grommets to hang over door hooks, but I just made loops out of the fabric that I used for the organizer. For this one, I added a strap and handles on the back so that you can roll it up, secure it, and take it with you. Then I made matching small bags with snaps for further organization. Love it! This is a Christmas present for one of my sisters. I bought nothing new to make this--it was all stuff I had on hand. I think that most of the fabric came from an estate auction where I got a ton of stuff for $7, so the total cost, literally, was pennies. And time, of course, but it's not as time consuming as you'd think.

Teddy Bear Wallet

When my family came to visit a few weeks ago, one of my sisters saw a little makeup bag I'd made for myself and loved it. It was basically just like this, but with snap closures. She said, in a hinting way, "I'll have to have you make me one of those sometime..." So I did. And I'm not even waiting till Christmas to send it to her, b/c I've already made her one that matches the hanging organizer that I made her for her present (sshhh, don't tell!).

I hate this fabric--I'm not a stuffed animal fan (sister definitely is!). I had just enough to do something small with it, and she is the only person I can comfortably unload it on. :)

The fabric and the bottons came as part of a large load of sewing and crafting stuff that I got for $7 at an estate auction, so we'll call it all 15 cents, even tho it probably didn't even come to that. Under each button is a velcro circle, which were 16 sets for $2 at WM, so about 13 cents.

Grand total = under 30 cents!