Sentimental Stitches

Can You Guess Where I Am?

Gayle — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:52:29 +0000

I don’t seem to stay in one place for very long these days. This huge Amish center diamond design was a pleasant surprise when I arrived at today’s destination. Can you guess where I am?

Do you have it figured out?

The Davis Mercantile with it’s beautiful new quilt design, is located in none other than - Shipshewana, Indiana, one of my favorite places to visit. Who am I kidding, I could easily live here.

Shipshewana’s Quilt Festival started today. There was a luncheon with Marianne Fons and the quilt show opened right after that. Some of the area shops stayed open late and there are many more events planned over the next few days. You can check them out here.
I’ll be here tomorrow and part of Friday bringing you as many of the sights as I can. For now, here’s a slide show featuring some local shops.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Shipshewana Backroads Shop Hop begins on Friday. There’s been a few wrinkles before the scheduled hopping begins. Email me if you need contact information for the organizers.

It’s hotter than blue blazes here. Still in the 90s at 7:30 PM. I’m comfortable in my room at the Farmstead Inn with a piece of Old Fashioned Cream pie from the Blue Gate calling my name.

What Can I Say?

Gayle — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:35:37 +0000

Clutch and I are at the cottage surrounded by quite a bit of my fabric stash and yet I’ve sewn very little.
I haven’t even pulled out the So Sew Easy Bag to work on the Pretty Pocket I want to add to the lining for the first Twist on the pattern.

As my boys would say - “What’s up with that”?

What can I say? I guess I better change the blade in the rotary cutter and get busy. Clutch needs a new cover for the seat on his booster chair. Yes, the little man sits with us at the table when we eat.
I won’t show you the ugly rust color piece of vinyl that’s been on the chair for 20 years. I can’t believe I didn’t do something about this before but then again, I haven’t had a boy who jumped up on the chair and slid off the other side either.

Traverse City is the cherry capitol of the world and hosts the National Cherry Festival every year so I think I’ll use this cute cherry print for the seat and add a ruffle made from the black and white polka dot.

It should be cute with the Mary Engelbreit cherry dishes I got in Shipshewana a few years ago.

I have been thinking about quilting though.
I’ve drawn quite a few little applique designs to add to the Midget Blocks.

and I have the applique almost finished on one of them. I’ll post a new design this week.

So Sew Easy Schlep Bag - Part 7

Gayle — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:49:26 +0000

I’m sorry it took me until Tuesday to get back to this tutorial but I had a feeling that would happen. I’m pretty sure you were able to finish your bag following the instructions in the pattern but I’m going to add a few more steps here just in case.

Turn the outer bag right side out.

Find the center point of the four triangles on top edge of bag.

Mark the center point with a pin on each triangle.

Center the ends of the straps, right sides together, on top of marked center points on triangles. Pin in place securely.

Baste in place 3/8″ from raw edge.

Put outer bag (with right side out) inside the lining (which is wrong side out).

Pin around the top edge matching side seams on lining with intersecting seams of triangles on outer bag.

Sew around the top of the bag 1/2″ from raw edge. I usually double stitch this seam for added strength at the handles.

Turn bag right side out through the opening in side seam of lining.

Push lining down inside of outer bag and press the seam.

Topstitch around top edge of bag.

Blind stitch the opening in lining side seam closed.

Enjoy your new So Sew Easy Bag!

There aren’t pictures for those last few steps yet. The last couple of seams are pretty easy and it gives me the opportunity to finish one of the first Twists for you. I’m going to add pockets to the inside of the single fabric lining. I’ll take some finishing pictures as I sew.

So Sew Easy Schlep Bag - Part 6

Gayle — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:02:48 +0000

We are getting to the home stretch here. How many of you are laughing at me and saying “You can’t make this bag in a couple of hours”. Yes, you can make the bag in a couple of hours but let me tell you, you can’t write a tutorial that fast. Dang - it’s taken me a lot longer than I anticipated but I’m determined to finish up these last two segments today. I have to drive back to Grand Rapids to help out at the boutique Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I’m sure you don’t want to wait until Tuesday for the rest of the story.

We have the outside of the bag together. Isn’t it awesome? We’ve made two beautiful handles and we need some lining for this baby.

You can press all those seams on the outside of your bag now. If you carefully rotate it around the narrow end of your ironing board you’ll be able to get to them all. I like to press the twisted seams in the direction making the point where the stitching lines cross each other at the top edge visible. That’s the 1/2″ seam allowance which will join the bag to the lining and I don’t want to cut off the points on my squares as I stitch around the top.

We’ll be working with the two squares you cut for your single fabric lining. As you can see, the selvage is still on my squares. Many fabrics today don’t give you a full 45″ width. Unless your selvage is exceptionally wide it will work just fine. The selvage is hidden when we sew the lining pieces together. I guess I’d rather have a smidgen of selvage showing rather than buy an extra 5/8 yard of fabric.

With right sides together, using a 1/2″ seam allowance, sew around three sides of the lining squares leaving a 5″ opening on one side. Clip lower corners diagonally. Press seams open. I realize my lining looks slightly different than yours. I don’t usually add batting or interfacing the these bags. I like to be able to fold them up and tuck them in my purse but I wanted this one to have some extra body so I added fusible interfacing to the lining.

To shape the bottom of the bag, with right sides together, bring one side seam of the lining to the bottom seam. It’s important to match the seam lines and pin in place.

Measure from the point 7 3/8″ along the folds and mark a dot on each side.

Draw a line from dot to dot across the corner. Pin the two layers together to keep them from shifting. Stitch on the line, backstitching at the beginning and end of the seam. Repeat for opposite side of lining.

Press the corner points toward each other and tack to the bottom seam. If you are using heavyweight fabric, trim off the points 1/2″ from seam line to reduce bulk. If you do want the extra body, they can be tacked to the bottom seam too. In this case I’m tacking mine.

So Sew Easy Schlep Bag - Part 5

Gayle — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:44:35 +0000

Isn’t it amazing the results you get after stitching those twisted seams? That’s when you feel like you’re making progress toward an actual bag rather than a strange looking pinwheel with no possible use.

Hopefully your bag looks like this.

Now we’ll work with the fabric and batting strips you cut for the handles and get started on those.

Fold the fabric strips for the straps in half lengthwise, wrong sides together and press to form a crease down the center.

Fuse the batting strip to the wrong side of the upper half (or left side if the strip is in a vertical position) of the handle aligning the edge of the batting along the pressed fold line. I used a press cloth when fusing the batting to the fabric.

Fold the top (left) edge of the fabric strip down over the batting and press to hold in place.

Fold the bottom (right) edge of the strip over to meet the edge of the batting along the center fold line. The raw edge of the fabric will be along the center fold.

Bring the folded edges of the fabric together, or almost together in this case, and press. I know you’re wondering why the two fold lines don’t come all the way together. I did this on purpose because I like a nice clean edge on both sides of the strap but also want the durability of the double fabric. If you’d like the edges to meet, cut your handle strips 1/2″ wider.

Topstitch right next to the folded edge. It should be about 3/8″ from the edge of the handle which makes it easy to stitch by following the seam guide on your sewing machine. Topstitch 3/8″ from the edge on the opposite side of the handle.

If one row of topstitching on each side is good then two rows is better! I might stitch right down the middle too.
I’ve used several things other than fusible batting for stability in the straps. Denim, acrylic felt, wide elastic, flannel and cotton or acrylic webbing also work well.

So Sew Easy Schlep Bag - Part 4

Gayle — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:09:06 +0000

This seems to be the place lots of people get confused about what to sew together. I was scratching my head the first time I made a bag so don’t feel bad if you’ve gotten stuck here.

We’re going to be bringing these two strips together. The seams that connect the strips appear to twist around the bag after they’re sewn.

Pin the seam matching the seams lines of the squares. Isn’t it nice how the seam allowances stagger thanks to pressing the seams in alternate directions?

I know it looked like it those two seams weren’t going to match up but it’s the side of the triangle at the top that gives us the correct length. It’s funny how your eyes can play tricks on you with things like this.

You will have those little dog ears at the ends of the triangles. They are supposed to be there. That’s how you get the seam allowance around the top of the bag. Because we cut the triangles around the top of the bag from squares, the long edge is a bias edge. Take care when handling this piece. You don’t want to stretch out the top of your bag especially if you’re going to make one of the reversible ones where you’d be sewing a bias edge to a bias edge later on.

You can start stitching this seam from the triangle edge or from the point where it meets the “C” squares. Because we need to stop our stitching and backstitch at the point where the seam meets the “C” squares I usually look at the wrong side of my “C” fabric and “B” fabric and try to end on the side where I have a better view of the stopping point. In this case I have a better view sewing from the triangles toward the meeting point with my “C” fabric on top rather than starting at that meeting point with the floral “B” fabric on top.

Stitch the seam using a 1/4″ seam allowance backstitching at the end of the seam where it meets the “C” squares.

You should have a nice floating seam where the stitching ends. Repeat these steps and sew the remaining three seams.

So Sew Easy Schlep Bag Tutorial - Part 3

Gayle — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:41:16 +0000

It’s time to lay out the squares and triangles that will form each strip that twists around the outside body of the bag. I’ve been known to mix up the fabrics or change my mind on something at this point. Now’s the time to rearrange things if you’re not happy with how things look.

Referring to your fabrics choices for “A” - “B” - “C” and “T”, lay your fabrics out in four strips that look like this one.

Using a 1/4″ seam allowance, sew four the “C” squares together like you would a four patch quilt block, stopping your stitching 1/4″ from the outside edge on all seams. These points are indicated in Fig. 1 on the pattern. Backstitch three or four stitches at those points to secure the end of the seam.

Unlike the 1/4″ seams when machine piecing, I want you to press the seams open on the “C” squares.

The four “C” squares should look like this on the wrong side after they are sewn together. Not too exciting yet is it?

At this point you can sew together the “A” and “B” squares using a 1/4″ seam allowance. This time you can sew from edge to edge on the seams. Sew a “T” triangle to the top of the “A” squares. You can refer to Fig. 2 on the pattern to make sure you have the triangles going in the right direction. I’ve messed them up more than once.

It’s time to add the strips to the four “C”squares we have ready. Fold back the seam allowance left open at the end of the “C” seam so you can see the raw edge of the square. Pin it in place to help keep it out of the way.

Pin the “B”square (which is the lower edge of the strip), right sides together, to the “C”square matching raw edges.

Stitch using a 1/4″ seam allowance starting or stopping at the outer corners of the “C” squares depending on the direction you are sewing the seam.

The outside of the bag should look like this on the right and wrong sides at this point.

Now don’t get excited and press all those seams open or even all in one direction. Going clockwise, press the seams of the first strip in one direction and the seams of the next strip in the opposite direction. Continue to alternate pressing on the last two strips.

Take a little break and we’ll sew the twisted seams in Part 4.

So Sew Easy Schlep Bag Tutorial - Part 2

Gayle — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:12:09 +0000

Now that we have our fabrics selected and a placement decided on it’s time to begin cutting. I’m only concentrating on the outside part of the bag right now and the handles.

From fabric “A” cut four 8″ squares. I wanted to use the large flowers for this square. I cut an 8″ square from tracing paper (I can see through it) so I could “fussy cut” each flower

From fabric “B” cut four 8″ squares.

From fabric “C”cut four 8″ squares.

From fabric“T” (or “T/H”)cut two 8 1/2″ squares. Cut these squares in half diagonally one way to yield 4 triangles.

From fabric “H” (or “T/H”)cut two strips 7″ x 22″.

Congratulations! - you now have the pieces for the outside of your bag ready to sew.

So Sew Easy Schlep Bag Tutorial - Part 1

Gayle — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:56:56 +0000

I hope you’ll enjoy making the basic squares version of the So Sew Easy Bag with me. If you haven’t printed a copy of the fabric requirements and instructions you can get them HERE.

You need to choose at least 4 fabrics for the outside of your bag. One of them will be the top triangle row and the handles. I have no problem picking out at least 7 or 8 fabrics but narrowing them down to the final 4 is what causes me the most trouble. I try to think about what I’m going to use my bag for and that often helps. In this case, I’m going to schlep things back and forth to the cottage this summer so I’ve chosen fabrics with a dark background.

We need to decide on placement so before you cut your squares and triangles choose your favorite fabric. That’s the one I’d label as “A”. I like to use a darker fabric for “C” because it will be the bottom of the bag. Select a fabric for position “B” and one as fabric “T/H” (triangles/handles). Note: The handles don’t have to match your triangles. They can be made from any of your choices.

So Sew Easy Schlep Bag Tutorial on Wednesday!

Gayle — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:51:42 +0000

Schlep Bag - Twist Bag - Easy Squares Tote - Such a Simple Bag - whatever you want to call it, this is my go to pattern anytime I need to make a quick and stylish bag.

The basic squares bag is perfect as a tote bag. Smaller squares will make a great purse, a bag to carry toys, a trick-or-treat bag, school bag, lunch bag or you can use it inside your larger tote to carry a snack or keep a smaller project organized inside. The possibilties are just endless!

They say a pictures is worth a thousand words so on Wednesday at 10:30 am EST I’ll post step by step instructions (along with pictures) showing how to make the basic squares bag.
You can print the fabric requirements and pattern HERE on the So Sew Easy Schlep Bag page. Special note: if you printed your pattern before Dec. 11, 2008 it may contain an illustration with one of the triangles pointing in the wrong direction.

I have my fabrics ready to go.

Gather yours together and stop back Wednesday morning.