Two Designers = One Bag...

It's been a while but there was some sewing in my weekend...yay!...(and three days later I realise I wrote a post, got distracted and didn't hit publish, sheesh!)...resulting in...

A bag that is almost the True Friends Tote Bag from the Red Home book by Natalie Bird...and the other designer? I used an embroidery by Rosalie Quinlan instead of the stitchery in the pattern....

 Front

Back - sitting wonky but it really isn't...

Seeing all the lovely bags the girls in this year's Stitch-A-Long were producing from this pattern I really liked the shape so I gave up resisting and bought the book. I started the embroidery the day Rosie & I went to Urban Stitches (it was a pattern/project from a previous year play day at Urban Stitches) and decided at that time to use it for the bag...I'm happy that the bag design did not disappoint, it has turned out much bigger than I thought it would be, a very useful size of not too big and not too small, fabulous. Sure I could have modified the pattern to put pockets on the inside but I remembered that after I had sewn the lining seams and didn't want to do the reverse sewing thing so just skipped that idea and moved on...

The fabrics all came out of the stash boxes. They looked fine cut out on the table, then when I started sewing them together I was a bit like, oh not going to like this combo, but then when I finished, oh yes, I do! Isn't it funny how fabric combos change as they are sewn.  I used bag batting instead of pellon which gives good structure which I prefer to the softy softy of pellon.  The quilting isn't much, just in the ditch along the seam lines to attach the outers to the batting, nothing special at all.  The buttons are purely decorative and not in the original design.  The bag is destined for a birthday present - it's only about four and a half months past the actual birthday.  I hope she likes it, she is in a profession that involves lots of toting of "stuff" back and forth between work and home so I hope it comes in useful.


I've been a bit absent from blogland recently, scanning posts in Bloglovin', not taking a whole lot of notice of my Blogger dashboard or Bloglovin' profile information but tonight I noticed that there has been an increase in followers - Hello! and welcome!! - not that there has been much to see recently...off for a retreat this weekend, you never know I might even manage a stitch or two in between socialising...so no Million Paws Walk for Madam Kafoops this year as although I'll be in Maldon which is half way between our preferred locations for the walk of Castlemaine or Bendigo I of course won't have Herself with me and no Geelong Quilt-In either...why are all the good things on the same weekend, sulk...


Happy Stitching!...