Made on a Friday

You're about to see the stuff I made on Friday 9/14.  But not all of it.  I didn't get a pic of one item, so I'll show it off all on its own once it's finished up.

Friday I was super productive.  See:

I whipped up a quick bag from the Green Bag Lady free pattern/tutorial.  This is the fabric I got from the traveling stash box.  It was outdoor/decorative weight so I figured it needed to be a new shopping bag.  A few of my existing shopping bags are getting very worn and since they're the plastic-y kind (you know, those freebie ones you can send away for from the cereal boxes and such) they aren't going to wash well, so when they're dead, they're dead.

But hopefully not this bag.  It's 100% cotton so it should wash ok.  Though it did mention "dry clean" on the raw edge.  But I bet the worst thing that woud happen to it if I didn't dry clean would be it shrinking a bit and getting a little wonky.  Neither of which is a big deal for a shopping bag.

So this bag counts toward the Green Bag Flash Mob.  And I'm also considering it kind of upcycling/recycling, since the fabric was from that stash box.

Pretty much at the same time I was making that bag, I also made this one.

It's a free pattern/tutorial at Diary of a Quilter (HERE).  It's really super simple and begs to be modified (to add a pocket and/or closures).  But even this super simple version is great.  I took it with me over the weekend and it was very useful.

Close ups!

I bought this bar code print fabric on a lark.  It looked cool.  But once I got it I wondered what on earth I'd ever use it for.  The minute I saw that tutorial I knew I'd found a use for the bar code fabric.

The lining fabric is a Dia de los Muertos print remnant I (again) bought on a lark.  I love how it's a tiny punch of color but doesn't show through the white outer fabric. 

This bag took a yard of fabric total (1/2 yard of each print) but there were decent sized pieces left over (so you could make pockets from the trimmings).

I'd definitely make this bag again.  I'm thinking it would be a great item to make for future charity sales.  Even this simple version (with no pockets or closures) is nice enough to ask $10.  If I didn't think I could sew it myself, I wouldn't think $10 was unreasonable.

I also think I found a use for the Lorax fabric I bought for my sister.  It would make a great bag.

Since I had the whole day to myself, I dedicated a bit of time to my current Work In Progress, too.

I got the remaining 8 squid legs stitched and all 10 legs stuffed.  And let me just say, stuffing is the real time suck on this project.  It's not hard but it is very time consuming.  And a great excuse to sit in front of the t.v.

Now I just need to measure and cut the strip (that attaches the legs to the body) and do the harder part of the sewing.  I think I'll get to that this weekend since I may need to enlist my hubby to help hold the legs still while I sew them to the strip.  Then I think the rest will be hand stitched (again, not hard but kind of tedious).

It made me giddy to see the parts lined up on the bed.  It really showed the size of this project (and has me worrying how on earth I'm going to ship this beast).

Along with the two bags and massive progress on the Squidy Smalls, I stitched a new embroidery hoop to replace the earth day hoop still on display on my work cubicle.  I didn't get a chance to finish it, so I don't have pics of it just yet.  I'm not going to move on to any new projects until I finish that last simple step (so I can get it up at my cubicle--I'm tired of the earth hoop).