Sewing books

First I made the books.

These are saddle-stitched books with cardstock and unlined paper. I have so many shades of green, blue and pink left and even more cardstock.

Then I made the drawstring bag to put the books in. 

Then I made a larger book with a fabric over the cardboard and decided that it'll have it's own drawstring bag. 

What a lot of fun :-)

Have a blessed day!

Go green this Christmas

Go green this Christmas and make your own gift bag rather than use wrapping paper that will be ripped and thrown away.

Anyway, if you haven't noticed how I make stuff by now, I'm winging this. That's why there are no specific measurements. This also means that you can make it any size you like as long as you know the ratios and what to look out for.

Material

• 4 pieces of fabric - outer (1pc), lining (pc), top (2pcs) - the outer and lining are large rectangles, twice the size of your final bag when you fold breadthwise, meaning breadth meets breadth and length is halved. The top parts are as long as when the outer is folded half, as wide as 4 times the cords / ribbons you're going to use. Please remember to include sufficient allowance for sewing.
• cord or ribbon for drawstring top
• bells, charms (optional)
• label (optional)

Method

1. Prepare the materials above
2. Fold in the breadths of the top pieces and sew near the edge. This is so that the ends won't fray. See yellow arrow.
3. Take the lining and fold half breadthwise (breadth meets breadth) and crease it along the length. See red arrow. Fold both top pieces into half lengthwise (length meets length) and place them along the edge of the lining, one on each side of the half where you just creased. All frayed edges need to be aligned.
4. Place the outer piece on top so that you have a sandwich. Bottom - lining, middle - top piece folded half lengthwise, top - outer piece. Sew along the frayed edge of this 'sandwich'.
5. Open the 'sandwich' and top-stitch near the edge. See red arrow. You may wish to add a label at this time.
6. If you want squared off corners, open them up and fold them 45-degrees across. Think tetra packs or milk cartons. Same concept. Trim off the excess. See red arrow.
7. Fold the whole thing such that the outer is folded half on itself, and ditto the lining. Sew round the 3 edges. Remember to leave an opening for turning. Trim the part where the outer and lining meets. See red arrow.
8. Turn it proper way out and sew the hole closed. Cut 2 pieces of cord or ribbon. These will be longer than the length of the outer or lining. Thread one through one of the top pieces and out  the other and knot it. Thread the other through the other end and knot it. Add charms or bells, if you like.

Have fun!

All knotted up

Once in a while, I chance upon 'stuff'. Thing was, I happened to see a Martha Stewart tutorial on this and pinned it, reserving this project for another day. Her project was a floor mat, using rope. I'm thinking the tie-up-the-sailing-boat type, as in thick rope.

Anyway, I found this cord while searching for my beading string. Didn't find the string but remembered the tutorial and decided to make one with the cord. I used another tutorial, by the way, with similar results. Haven't figured out how to tuck in the tails yet.

It took me less than 10 mins to knot this but more than an hour tugging and tugging it so that it'll be a snug fit. For a cord of 0.8cm cross-sectional diameter, I ended up with 10cm x 7cm product. Perhaps a coaster?

For this Taylor Swift fan

This Cresyn headphones came with it's own drawstring bag. Pretty slick one in black in a material that feels like soft PVC. I thought it looked pretty cool, this black/white headphones in the black drawstring with a minimal Cresyn stamp in the centre of the bag but DD had other ideas. She chose this cotton/linen blend with her favourite green squirrel and paired it with a solid green cotton. It's reversible by the way, so she can have it all green if she flips it the other way out.

I like the 2-in-1 looks with one bag and I'm gonna make some more and post them in Tiffany's Shoppe :-)

Have a blessed day!