Bags

Ladies who are standing up with me on July 24th, 2010: If you are not Alli or Mary, please go grab some coffee or water, pet your dog(s), or maybe take a nap. This is somewhat of a surprise.












So I'm making tote bags for all of my bridesmaid's, courtesy of the sewing book I got for Christmas, One Yard Wonders. I have all of the fabric together too! The fabric on the far left is for one of Ryan's sisters, its a chocolate brown with lilac detailing. The coral is for Ryan's other sister, the yellow is for one of my sisters, the brown and green is for my friend Melissa, and the 2-D zoo print is for my sister Mary.

Whew.



The chocolate brown, coral and yellow I got at a discount home decor fabric warehouse for $5/yard, which is a great deal for thicker fabric. The brown and green I got at Hobby Lobby with a 40% coupon, and Mary's animal print I ordered offline for maybe $10?

Anyway, I need to buy fabric to line the bags in, but it won't be expensive. I will buy a thicker fabric to line the animal print with since that fabric is on the thin side. The tote bags do much better with a thicker fabric to give them some shape.

I started with the coral, and wow does my machine hate that fabric. It pulled and tugged and was awful to work with. I showed the results to my sister Alli and she said I was being anal retentive, so I'm going to finish it (hopefully tonight) and see how it is. If it's awful, I have another 40% Hobby Lobby coupon I can use to buy more fabric. *Edited to add: I had to buy more fabric last night. Lesson learned!*

It's amazing how fast these go together now that I've made a practice one! I need to get better at cutting accurately.

I'm also hoping to make envelope shaped pouches with the scraps left over from the bags. We'll see!

I feel like I need to add something else to their gifts...we'll see! I want to give them stuff they'll use, and tote bags like this can be used to library books, groceries, work out clothes, anything really.

What are you gifting your bridesmaid's?