Rachel Greig

Sewing: Classic Canvas Tote Bag

My daughter Zoe has been invited to quite a few birthday parties lately and rather than buying gift wrap or gift bags, I decided to sew some mini canvas tote bags instead. Not only good to carry the present in, but it's also a part of the present itself!

I have sewn a few tote bags in the past year or so from various tutorials or patterns, but my favourite tutorial for quick and easy (and oh so practical) totes is this one from Sew Mama Sew. I love it because it doesn't waste fabric with fancy cuts, it is fairly straight forward to make, and I can now whip one up in about half an hour. I search fabric stores for decent canvas material and have found some really cool fabrics on special lately too which makes it even better! 

The tutorial uses measurements to create a normal shopping sized tote bag. I made quite a few of these last year for Christmas presents, but I wanted to make some smaller ones, so I just halved the measurements (or thereabouts!) to make these mini totes:

Zoe was pretty excited to give these to her friends! We made a large one for her best friend too (we had to fit a big bouncy ball in it!!) Here it is:

The good news... all of the girls loved them!

All photos here taken with the Instagram app on iPhone 4. These totes were walking right out the door the minute they were made, so no time for any fancy photography!!

If you have made any totes, or if you know of any other great tutorials, please tell us by leaving a comment! Thanks!

 

Rag Quilt Update

I managed to complete the rag quilt I started last week. It was a great little project, something I'd been wanting to try out for a long time! Here's some snap shots of the progress:

Here's the whole pile of quilted squares, ready for laying out. (don't look too closely at the stitching or cutting, I'm certainly not a perfectionist!!)

All the squares were then laid out on the floor to make sure I had them in some sort of random pattern. I didn't do them in any sort of order, Zoe and I just put them all out and switched the squares around until we liked what we saw.

Then I sewed all the squares together. I only had basic instructions from the internet, so didn't really know which way to put the seams, but most of the methods I had read about suggested splaying them out to each side (instead of over to one side) so I did that. I wasnt sure how that was going to work on the very outer edge, but after it was all done, clipped, washed and dried, it fluffed up well and looks great.

All of these photos were taken using the Instagram app on my iPhone (no fancy photography for these ones, didn't have time for that during a sewing session!) But I'll take some photos of the full rug with my camera in the next few days so you can see the real colour and how it all looks.

It was made with 9"x9" squares, with 1/2" seams. I did 7 rows by 9 rows, which just covers a single bed. Would be nice to perhaps to 8 x 10 rows to give it a bit of extra length, but I didn't have enough material. This size covers our single beds enough anyway (just like a doona). Ethan has had this on his bed ever since and LOVES it! So if you want to sew for a boy, this is a great project to do! The material I've used is All Star 2 by Riley Blake, purchased from Flannel Queen. I cut up a blue flanelette sheet for the underside.

I have a bunch of pink/green/white material here to do one for Zoe now. Her birthday is in 3 weeks, so I hope to have it finished by then.

Beginnings of a Rag Quilt

I've been wanting to make a rag quilt for a while now, especially after seeing a few rag quilts displayed at various quilt fairs and watching my friend Simone create one out of old jeans and flannel fabric. They looked so cosy and warm! They also sounded relatively easy to put together (I say relatively, because even the simplest of sewing projects can always go wrong in my hands!!) but I'm willing to give anything a go.

So I've stocked up on some Riley Blake fabrics along with some flannel sheets that I no longer need and I'm in the process of sewing it all together. So far so good. I'll keep you posted on the progress!

Happy New Year!

One of my main goals for 2010 is to blog here more often. I update the Darkroom Door blog almost daily, but I don't post here as often as I'd like! Let's see if I can do better for 2010!

I've been increasing my fabric stash quite a lot lately... and have also been using it! Hurrah!!! Here's a couple of projects I made in December:

The large brown/blue bag was created from a Friendship Bag tutorial on the PS I Quilt blog. I wanted to create a larger bag so I doubled the size of the material. I had a few hiccups along the way, but in the end it all worked out! I created long straps too so it could go over my shoulder. Initially I didn't know how often I'd use the bag, but I have to say I have used it heaps since December!!! 

The smaller pink/green bag was co-created with my friend Simone. Well, she did most of it really! I cut it out and made the insert bit, she did the sewing. So I can't take too much credit for that one. Isn't it gorgeous though!!! I don't know where she got the pattern for that one, but it's a beauty! Simone made about 9 or 10 of them that day in all different fabrics. So cute!

And here's some art book holders I created for the kids:

The tutorial for these can be found here. I gave these to the kids for Christmas and they LOVE them. Quite quick to make too. I didn't take a picture of them when they're open, but on the left side that have 10 slots for pencils, and on the right is the sketchbook.

Hope you are all having a creative start to the year! Wishing you all a fun and happy 2010!

Rachel x