Sew Crazy

About 4 weeks ago I was sitting on the couch watching Kellie cross-stitch. I felt a little twinge of "I need a project" and I happened to say it out loud. While Kellie was out shopping she found me a project, one that I had been eyeing at the local craft store, so I was excited to get started.

What was going to be a simple project for me, and a nice scripture bag for Kellie, turned into 11 bags, 6 of which brought in a $200 donation to the family missionary fund at our family reunion auction last weekend. That $10 pattern and $40 worth of fabric had quite a return!

Oh, and I got a new sewing machine out of this project as well. My old one (which really was only 9 years old) was a piece of junk. I was getting so frustrated with it breaking the thread and skipping stitches and the worst was the annoying sound it would make. It sounded like it was repeating over and over "I'm mad, I'm mad, I'm mad" as I would sew and it bounced around so bad that it seemed to be trying to run away. As I was sewing at the table next to LeRoy, the thing threw the whole needle part at me. Not just the needle, the whole needle part. It broke off and was thrown in my lap. The grumpy thing was throwing a temper tantrum.

We couldn't figure out how to fix it and LeRoy had seen me getting more and more frustrated as I worked so he called a place in Idaho Falls, we made a trip, they took a trade in (ha!) and I came home with a new sewing machine. Though it is a top brand machine it is at the bottom of the sewing totem pole but still, oh, sew nice for me! It hums as it sews and sits calmly in place not rejecting its calling in life at all. I am shocked at how fast a project can come together when you don't have to rethread the bugger every 4 inches!

Had I been stuck using the old machine this post could have been about 1 bag. Instead I can't quit . . . you'll see.

I am terrible at reading sewing instructions, even the ones with diagrams, because I need to see it hands on. That's how I was taught. I decided to do a practice bag using flannel scraps that I had from my pajama making days and I came up with these 2 bags.

It was very helpful to do a cost-free, guilt-free-if-I-mess-it-up practice run so that I could learn how to do the outside pockets, inside pockets, handles and lining - none of which had I done before. Kellie's daughter Andie gets the lady bug one and the green and pink one was sold at the auction for $25.

After a grueling decision process in the fabric department (choosing the fabric is the part that I DON"T like about sewing), purchasing 8 fat quarters, 2 yards of fabric, and 3 yards of pelon, I managed to come up with these:

I followed the exact pattern with these, even down to color choice and fabrics.

I still had so much fabric left that I decided to do 2 big ones just to use up the fabric. They turned out nice but I was realizing that I don't really like patchwork for a bag. My personality wants something a little more simple. Still, they were practical, useful, new and fun to put together.

With the final scraps from the material that I had purchased I created my own designs. These were my favorite so far:

When I was taking pictures of them to send to Kellie so that she could choose the one that was to be hers (since she bought the pattern and gave me the project), I realized that I had pieced together enough squares to make a small quilt:

Three days worth of sewing (and I still managed to feed my family, go to a jewelry making party, take kids to the dentist and keep the house somewhat tidy) and this is what I had to show for all the thread and corner scraps scattered all over the floor:

While I was cutting all the fabric Nathan kept trying to take off with Andie's bag and asking when I was going to make him one. I explained that these were bags for girls, to which he stated matter-of-factly: "then make me a boy bag". I couldn't resist.

I took some of the blue pajama flannel scraps and made him a bag. He packed it around for 3 days straight and now uses it to grocery shop with our pretend food in our pretend kitchen.

By the time I had the 7 bags made from the fabric that I bought, I was actually kind of tired of looking at it and couldn't decided if I really even liked the bags. I decided to try one out during a quick trip to Idaho Falls. I got 2 compliments on the bag so I figured it must not be too bad. Somewhere in that trip I decided to do a bag with my own idea, not the pieced look, and with a neutral colors: black and white.

I have my favorite of these 3 also but overall I like them better than the colored bags. However, it seems that I will be doing more bags with a variety of colors: Erika wants one with red/black/white and one with multi-colored fabric, Caytlyn wants orange, (they want the large bags so that they can use them for school).

All of this because I thought out loud. Thanks for the project Kellie, I've had fun!