Stash 'n Dash Bags

Well I've definitely been falling behind on sewing.  I blame being swamped at work and the olympics. I can't watch them from my sewing area so I end up just not sewing.  I even forgot to do my July FMQ! *blush*.  I also need to put together my entry for the Pets on Quilts contest!

The update on my landscape quilt is that it's just about done, I'm stitching down the binding now. I always get confused sewing the two final ends of the binding together, the other day I sewed together incorrectly THREE times (and I think three different ways!) before I gave up.

I embroidered the snowy mountains more loosely than the lower mountains, then did some fun couching to outline them with a sparkly yearn. I'm now a little worried that it won't be obviously that the organza is intentionally crinkly lol.  It might just look like I sewed it on really badly.  >_<

Anyways, the big completion I had in the last week was a set of these "Stash and Dash" bags by Amy Butler. They were this month's project in my free sewing club class.

I told my boyfriend he had to take fancy glamour shots with his big camera for me, so here they are! (ooh! aah!)

 

These bags lend themselves well to fat quarter bundles, with a set of nicely coordinating fabrics.  The three bags are in progressively smaller sizes, from supposedly "toiletry," "make-up," and "coin purse" sizes.

I found these to be easy to make, although not super fast.  Probably including cutting and stitching of all three bags, it took me around 4 hours.  I could probably go a little faster in subsequent rounds.  I'm thinking just making the large size bag would be a nice Christmas gift for my work colleagues (who are conveniently all females).

When making these bags, I learned about "Wonder Tape." It's a thin strip of two-sided tape that washes out in the first wash. It seems useful for holding fabrics together when pins would be difficult or inconvenient.  In this case, I used the wonder tape to hold the interfacing and outer fabric to the zipper.  This allowed me to stitch the interfacing, zipper, and outer fabric together all in one go and with a nice clean stitch.  My teacher in the class showed us this trick and I'm very glad to have learned it.  The wonder tape is very inexpensive as well. :)

My absolute favorite thing about these bags is the nesting aspect. They all fit inside each other, which delights me to no end when I think of gifting this to someone.  They would open their present, see the toiletry bag, and be pleased.  Then I say "open it!" They open it to find ANOTHER bag inside.  And they open that one to find a THIRD bag inside! I break into giggles whenever I think about it, such a treat!

Anyways, those are the updates for now. This week I need to finish off that wallhanging.
Other Projects:


In Progress:
-Charity Quilt
-Quilted Jacket
-Placemats

To Do:
-July/August FMQ
-Sewing hanging sleeves onto all of my quilt show entries
-quilted clock