EASY BAG / POUCH FASTENING

A call went out at the last Waverley Quilters night, for some small bags to be used by folk undergoing Chemotherapy Treatment that requires them to wear a pump  for a period of time, at home.   I have done a few and whilst fiddling and making up an easy pattern,  I worked out an easy closing  system for these pouches, that will adjust as the pump is worn.   I have used buttons and press studs, but I think this will work a treat.  So here goes.....

From your chosen fabric, cut a strip 1 1/2 times or more (no more than double) than the width of the bag.

It will need to be wide enough to encase your chosen width of elastic (mine was about 10mm wide).  Make a tube and turn.   I pressed the tube so that the seam was running near the middle of what would be the back.    Now top stitch close to the edge  of each side.   

Thread the elastic through the tube and do a little bit of stitching to hold the ends in place.  

Lay the gathered strip across the front of the bag, making sure it is high/low enough to hold the flap that you have cut.   Mine was positioned about 3 inches down from the top of the bag.   Pin well in from the edges,  and adjust the fabric out of the way whilst you sew the seams.  You can push the gathers back when you have finished stitching.    When you are happy with how much play there is in the elastic piece, sew down to the front keeping within the seam allowance (1/8 inch will do it).

When the strip is tacked in place, finish the construction of your bag.    Be careful when you turn the piece that those pins don't stick you!!   The photo below shows the finished flap and how the elastic holds it down.   I added some fabric roses for a bit of tizz.    This method of closing a bag could be used on any bag with a flap.  If you wanted to make it  a bit of a fiddle for those with light fingers and thieving in mind,  you could add something a little chunky like the flowers to make opening  the bag more noticeable.  

This bag has a press stud closing. and a shabby flower.

 This denim look would work for a man or woman.  

 This frog one has a button and hair elastic closer.

And what is a post without O'Reilly with an appendage belonging to a teddy bear.    He is now tall enough to check out everything on the kitchen bench and weighs in at 62kg with a little  more to go.    Needless to say - nothing is safe!

 If you have any questions about the bags, you can contact me through the Tiramisue email.  

Bye for now.

Sue xxx

PS - my followers are still missing and have been for about two months now - greetings to you all :-) 

THE GHASTLIES

When I saw this fabric go up on Hancocks of Paducah I had to get some.     Luckily I was feeling rash and bought at least a yard of each - you will need at least a yard of each - the designs are enormous - that is not mentioned in the fine print!   

This one is at least 13 inches tall and probably more than that wide.   It will have to be fussy cut!   I also didn't realise when I was busy ordering wildly, that the same fabrics have different names on the Hancocks site, so just keep that in mind if you don't want or need yards/metres of the stuff.   I think I will pick some designs out of each colour way to cut the big blocks and then may be cut the fussy cut leftovers into some sort of border arrangement and not worry about how the designs work out. 

I did buy two yards of the tree fabric for some sort of outside border and had to buy the cat fabric (Sebastian) as he reminds me of Norman on a bad day.   Total Attitude or is that Cattitude!

Whilst in a buying frenzy, I also purchased some books from The Book Depository .   I have quite the collection of fabric folding books - perhaps I should start making things from them........

The two little books on the side are for those who appreciate a quirky turn in their reading.  The little one in the top right of the picture had the girls at quilting laughing.   Its title is The Curious Sofa - A pornographic work by Ogden Weary.   The only naughty bits in it are what you think of when you read it and look at the pictures.    The other little book is a delightfully macabre alphabet.    It starts of with A is for Amy who fell down the stairs, B is for Basil, assaulted by bears, and goes on from there.   Both these books are by Edward Gorey (Ogden Weary is one of Mr Gorey's made up names) the alphabet dates back to 1963.   

During the week I spent some time making a couple of pouches for our quilt guild.    I am still working on my digitizing skills, but both of these appliqued frogs turned out a treat.  

Just for a change of pace,  a huge amount of time was spent playing with my photo program trying to make a sign for my kitchen.   The computer spent of lot of time having a cow and making cryptic comments about how much space being wasted (it sounded better from the computer, but I can't remember what it's problem was - mostly cause there seemed to be so many of them).  Anyway, eventually the computer agreed to save my work in a place where it  could be found, instead of shutting down and losing my work just as I was getting to the end.     Here is the masterpiece - hours it took.........

So now I need to find some ratty old frame -  which no doubt will require hours of trawling through op/thrift shops in a quest to find the perfect frame that I can "shabby chic" - and set too with the white paint and then take the file down to the camera shop and get it printed up in the appropriate size.  

Off to gaze at my fabric now.   Bye Sue xxx

PS  - I noticed I have a couple of extra followers.   Due to whatever the technical difficulty is with followers I can't see you, but I know you're there - thank you.