I really
needed a bag to carry all my sewing essentials around the house. The problem is that I don't have a sewing
room. My sewing machine is in the
bedroom, the iron is on the landing and I cut out my fabrics downstairs in the lounge. That means I am constantly carrying scissors,
tape measure, marking pen, etc. up and downstairs from room to room. This bag is just the right size to carry
these and it has a comfortable strap which hangs across the body like a
messenger bag.
Like most
sewists, I never throw scrap fabric away because I know it will come in useful
at some point in the future. However, my
scrap bag was becoming really full and it was time to start using it up. What's nice about this bag is the fact that
it's a constant reminder of other pleasurable projects; when I see the blue
fabric I remember my patchwork quilt, the red fabric was used in a craft bag.
It's also good to know that no one will have a bag the same as mine. My fabrics were mostly quilting cotton but it
would look great in a mix of fabrics to add texture.
It took ages
to sew all the scraps together although I enjoyed doing it. Crazy patchwork involves sewing around an
uneven five sided shape. There wasn't a
centre shape here which was why I called it 'insane patchwork'. It's just random fabrics joined together in
any way that they would fit. The bag itself was quick to assemble. It could have many uses, one of which would
be as a money bag at craft fairs.
I've done
paper piecing once before and really enjoyed it, although it took a while to
get my head round the fact that everything is back to front.
I used my
normal stitch length of 2.5 but increased it to 3 when assembling the bag.
I have
included metric and imperial measurements but they are not exactly
interchangeable, so you should stick to either one or the other.
Skills used in this project:
- Insane patchwork
- Paper piecing
Step 1: Assembling the resources
You will need
the following:
9½" x
8½" (24cm x 21.5 cm) bag back (create 2 pieces of insane patchwork from scraps and cut 1
double sided fusible wadding)
7" x
8½" (18cm x 21.5cm) middle pocket (create 2 pieces of insane patchwork from scraps and cut
1 double sided fusible wadding)
4¾" x
4½" (12cm x 11.5cm) front pocket (create 2 paper pieced sections, cut 2 or create 2 for
the backing and cut 1 double sided fusible wadding)
You will also
need:
2" x
79" (5cm x 160cm) fabric for binding
(if buying readymade binding, you
will need 1" (2.5cm) width. This does
not need to be cut on the bias as all the edges are straight.
1" x
49" (2.5cm x 125cm) webbing for strap
(although check how long you would like the cross body strap to be)
Paper pattern
for the paper piecing
Step 2: Making the insane patchwork
fabric
As the piece
of fabric grows larger, you will need larger pieces of fabric to sew along a
whole edge. To do this, join several
pieces to make one larger piece, then join that to your existing patchwork.
Trim to size.
Step 3: Paper piecing
Paper piecing pattern
Using your paper pattern, sew scraps of fabric to the reverse side of the paper with wrong sides of the fabric against the paper. When all the sewing has been completed, gently tear the paper away from the wrong side of the fabric and you will be left with your pieced fabric image. The technique is the same for the tree and the house, or design your own pattern - anything with straight edges will work.
Paper piecing pattern
Using your paper pattern, sew scraps of fabric to the reverse side of the paper with wrong sides of the fabric against the paper. When all the sewing has been completed, gently tear the paper away from the wrong side of the fabric and you will be left with your pieced fabric image. The technique is the same for the tree and the house, or design your own pattern - anything with straight edges will work.
Sew the
fabric to the paper in number order.
Continue to
add fabric in the order stated on the pattern until the image is complete, then
tear the paper away (the stitches perforate the paper so it should come away
fairly easily).
After sewing
the paper pieced house, draw 4 windows and a door and sew around them either by
hand or machine. I used embroidery
thread and sewed them by hand using backstitch.
Trim them to
size so that they measure 4¾ high" x 4½ (12cm x 11.5cm) across". Join them together to create the front pocket
by sewing them, right sides together down one of the slightly longer sides.
Step 4: Attaching the wadding
Place the
wadding between the 2 front pocket pieces of fabric so that the right sides of
the fabric are facing outwards.
Press. If you do not have
double-sided fusible wadding, you could use a fabric adhesive spray such as
Stick and Stay with any low loft (thin) wadding or fleece.
Do the same
for the middle pocket and also for the back.
Step 5: Making the binding
Using
2"/5cm strips of fabric, fold them in half lengthways to find the
centre. Fold the edges in so that it
looks like bias binding and press.
Attach the
binding to the top edge of the front pocket.
Do this by
sewing the binding with the right side of the binding against the front of your pocket. Match the raw edges and sew along the
fold.
Fold the binding over the edge of
the fabric/wadding and hand sew it down on the other side so that it just
covers the stitch line.
Do the same
for the top edge of the middle pocket.
Trim any
excess binding from the side edges.
Step 6: Assembling the pockets
Match the
bottom raw edge of the front and middle pocket and sew down the centre to
create 2 small pockets.
Sew around
the side and bottom edges, very close to the edge to hold all the pieces firmly
in place.
Step 7: Attaching the binding around the outside edges
Pin the
pockets to the back so that the bottom and sides meet.
Pin the
binding to the front all the way round.
Fold the initial raw edge over so that it will be hidden when sewn in
place.
The corners
can be mitred for a neat finish when sewing with one long strip of binding, or
alternatively, 4 separate strips of binding can be sewn, one along each edge
with ends turned under. To achieve a
mitred corner, stop sewing about ¼"/6mm before the end. Turn the fabric slightly so that you finish
stitching diagonally towards the corner.
Remove the fabric from the machine and re-position it so that you are
ready to sew the next edge but start about ¼"/6mm in from the edge. The
binding should be turned so that it forms a fold which runs parallel to the
edge which has just been sewn. Do this for each corner. Turn the binding over the raw edge and hand sew it in place on the reverse as you did for the pockets.
Step 6: Attaching the strap
To attach the
webbing, fold the end under by about 1"/2.5cm and place the webbing on the
back of the bag so that the raw edge is hidden under the webbing. Sew a 1"/2.5cm square to secure the
strap. Do the same for the other side,
making sure that the webbing isn't twisted.
You now have
a unique bag which cost virtually nothing to make!
In this project I learnt:
- I had fun building my insane patchwork fabric. I had to keep trimming the shapes to ensure that I was working with straight lines. Having a rotary cutter made this job so much quicker. If I was making a quilt, I would sew the scraps to a piece of foundation fabric which would stabilise the individual pieces and prevent any twisting or puckering which can often happen when many of the edges are on the bias. However, that wasn't really necessary for this bag as I wasn't after a particularly neat effect.
- I love the look of paper piecing. It looks so complicated and clever and yet it's so easy to do. I forgot to embroider the windows and door on the house and didn't remember until after I had attached the wadding. This means that the back of the embroidery is visible in the pocket. That wasn't what I wanted but no one's going to see it so it doesn't matter too much.
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