This almost ok bag went to a meeting....

A very long time ago I bought this pattern for a 'Market bag'. I thought it would be a perfect bag to take with me to the Fat Quarterly Retreat next month so I decided to grab some (IKEA) fabric from my stash and try the pattern. I'm glad I didn't use some fancy Echino fabric (like this one for example) on my first try because the finishing on the inside is not uhm... perfect. Officially it's a reversible bag but I'm happy with just showing the happy orange side to the general public. ;)  It's not a complicated bag at all, I just had some trouble understanding the directions. In the pattern an interfacing was used which I left that out as the outer fabric was a sturdy, canvas-like material. I also left out the pockets. All in all I"m quite pleased with the overall look and I'm sure I will make another market bag soon one day.

I took my newly made bag with me to an informal meeting of Dutch Modern Quilting group 'Double Dutch' in Leiden yesterday. There were 7 ladies and there was lots of chatting, a bit of show and tell, eating cakes and (in my case) very little sewing. There was an ugly fabric swap too, except the fabrics weren't ugly at all. Look at my loot!

The really ugly fabrics were in the small 'Scrap Vomit' starter packs I handed out to the other ladies. ;) I also showed my Scrap Vomit Quilt top to give an idea of how lovely 'ugly' fabrics can be.

There were more accomplished quilting efforts on show too, like this beautiful quilt made by Muriel. And Linda managed to finish a fabulous pillow (it was already half finished, but still), which gave me serious pillow-envy. Linda has an Etsy shop too, full of beautifully stylish hand made zipper pouches, pincushions and more.

Thank you ladies of 'Double Dutch' for making me feel welcome in your group!

Zoe's bag (made from my stash)

It's a good thing I don't visit Ikea as much as I used to because every time I'm there I just have to buy some of their fabrics. Some of the IKEA fabrics are quite heavy (canvas probably) and durable. Perfect for making bags and tote bags and so on, and that's what I did! Zoe needed a new bag for her Theater Class and this bag  holds everything she needs: ballet shoes, clothes for dancing, a drink and a snack and a binder.

The bag is simply shaped like a long tote bag with a 'boxy bottom' and the top folds over so it looks like a messenger bag. It was super easy to make apart from the bits where there were multiple layers of canvas to sew through. I used a 'jeans' needle for that. It was a bit noisy but my Husqvarna managed to do it in the end!

Look! I haz cute Ikea fabric lining too!

I followed this tutorial but simplified it quite a bit. I have a less fancier strap and did not bother with an inside pocket or a closure.

So while I was actually using some of my stash to make this bag. Some new additions to my stash arrived!

The very lovely Katy and I did a scrap swap. That is to say: I sent her some sorry scraps, she sent me enough to make quilts for the whole neighbourhood!

My embroidery 'un paperbag'

About a year ago I made the bag you can see here on the left cleverly displayed on Luna's scooter. It's based on a Purl Bee tutorial and it's called the Unpaper bag. I love the Unpaper bag especially it's 'boxy bottom' . The bag on the photo is a rather cheap version made with Ikea fabric as outer fabric (I still have A LOT of that fabric by the way, it was on sale when it went out of their fabric collection) and twill tape handles. Usually store bought bag handles -plastic, bamboo and most of all leather- are rather expensive and this works fine for me. Baghandles would make the bag look more classy I suppose. My Unpaper bag is now my embroidery bag but I'm sure it is a great bag to hold other crafty stuff too. I made two other Unpaper bags after this one, both to hold several smaller gifts. My bag looks a bit floppy, that's because it is a bit floppy. Instead of interfacing I used an extra layer of cotton fabric which I thought would do the job. A thicker outer fabric would probably help too.

Many thanks to everyone who has responded to the giveaway and the freebie pattern. Just to be clear: the giveaway is really only 1 fat quarter and several smaller pieces of fabric. And the gorgeous ricrac of course. I thought maybe some of you were under the impression that there were several fat quarters...