Saturday 25th June was one of my favourite type of days – all day to stitch and chat at the UFO day, New Threads, Weyhill Fairground. My friend Adrienne and I were joined by 2 other ladies, all of us keen to get ready, steady and stitch.
Adrienne took her Jelly Bean quilt to work on and this time around, I took a variety of bags and some half-completed patchwork.
I have already posted a picture of the patchwork – a Drunkards’ Path block in shades of Blue which I made into a cushion cover. For bag-making I decided to try a new pattern. The Martha Market Bag which is a large tote bag designed by “ithinksew” and available for free download from the craftsy.com website.
The Martha Market Bag is designed as a market or grocery bag; with its extra-secure handles and large volume, it is the perfect bag to carry many heavy items in. The finished size is approximately 20” wide x 20” high and 5” deep.
I packed two sets of materials into polythene bags. Being very organised each poly bag contained the pre-cut fabric outer and lining, handle webbing or fabric, co-ordinating thread, interfacing, wadding and pre-made zipped and slip pockets complete with my Carousel Cottage Crafts printed label and finally magnetic snap fasteners. However, I did slip up as had I mis-read the materials list and packed only sufficient webbing or fabric for ONE handle, not two. Bother!!
All was not lost as I was able to prepare and stitch the bag linings and one side of the outer for each bag. Now back at home I am able to finish off my UFO’s in the chaos that is my sewing room.
The first bag to be completed is “Anchors Away”. I used a great canvas fabric printed with a variety of anchors in different colours and sizes on a White background that I purchased last week at the Sandown Quilt Show. The base section of the bag is made using a Red Quilting Cotton purchased from New Threads. I already had a large reel of Red webbing for the handles. The lining is my usual stand-by of White Polyester cotton with the pockets made in remnants of textured White damask fabric originally purchased several years ago at Oswaldtwistle Mills. I knew it would come in handy some time!
The Martha Market Bag pattern is a great design. It goes together simply and quickly. You can decide whether or not to add pockets and/or magnetic snap so each bag can be a quick sew or take a little longer and will always be unique.
Now onto the next bag – this will be a Book Bag for my husband using the same LONDON print that I used for the Ethel Bag which is now winging its way to Germany.