This past weekend I decided I was going to clean up my craft table/sewing area, but first I wanted to decrease the clutter by finishing a few projects. Well, I finished a few projects, but there is still a lot of clutter. I should do something nice for my birthday and give myself the gift of a clean craft area. We’ll see how that goes.
Anyway, I wanted to share the projects I did complete. A few weeks ago I posted about my new purse from placemats. I still had some placemats that I wanted to make into bags, so that is just what I did.
First, I made a bag using two placemats. I cut 2 1/2 inches off of one long side on each placemat and turned those pieces into the handles. (Sometime soon I hope to have a tutorial posted about how I make these bags.) The flower was made from felt with a button center. The pattern pieces for the flower can be downloaded from MMM Crafts. I made this bag with the idea that it could be a reusable gift bag.
Next, I made a bag using one placemat and a zipper. The tutorial I found grabbed my attention because it said there were only four seams to sew. (I found the tutorial at this site.) The tutorial suggested using a 14 inch zipper, but I only had a 9 inch zipper. So, I had to cut off some of the placemat at the side. This made it more of a cosmetic bag size. If I make another one of these I will make sure I get a bigger zipper so that I don’t waste any of the placemat.
Neither of these projects were necessities, but they were fun to make. Every so often sewing something just because is a nice break from the norm.
I am linking this post with Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple
as well as Friday Fun Finds at Kojo Designs.
