The $5.00 Bag

The $5.00 Bag

When my boyfriend bought me my sewing machine for Christmas, he asked me, "Do you even know how to sew?"
"I took a semester of sewing in 7th grade" I told him with a huge grin =)

I could see the doubt in his eyes, but he bought it for me anyway. He even sprung for the "quilting" model!It didn't take long for me to remove the doubt from his eyes. Thanks to the internet, I was well on my way to becoming a sewing diva. I found all kinds of tutorials that teach me how to make all kinds of cool stuff. Many of them don't even require a pattern, just a measuring tape.

One of the websites that I stumbled across was SewCanShe. I immediately fell in love with this website. They feature daily free tutorials from other bloggers, and the stuff is so cute!

A few days ago they featured a tutorial from Diary of a Quilter on how to make fat quarter bags. They were so cute, I had to try this tutorial out. There were just a few problems. One, I didn't have any fat quarters, and two, her bags were small (I think she said she was making them for children for Christmas). I needed to make a bag for one of my boyfriends' co-workers, a grown-up =)

Fat Quarters vs. 1/4 cut yard:

• A fat quarter is sold pre-cut for about $2 and is a quarter of a yard, but the yard is cut into 4 squares.
• A cut quarter yard is still 1/4th of a yard, but it is a large rectangle cut at the fabric store from a bolt of fabric.

These are some fat quarters I bought for an upcoming Halloween project.

I dug in my fabric closet, and found these remnants. I had gotten them at JoANN fabrics a few months ago. The remnants there are always 50% off, and  I had 1/4 of a yard of each. This cost me $3.00, and was the perfect amount to make this bag. I also had some leftover brown broadcloth to use for the straps.

In the tutorial, her final product would be about 10x9 inches. Mine was 13x16. I could make mine larger because my fabric cuts were longer. 

 One thing I did differently was line my fabric with lightweight fusible interfacing. This will give the bag some stiffness. You only need to line wrong side of the outer portion of the bag. This stuff is very cheap, about $3 a yard and I only used 1/8. It irons on very easily, and makes the end product so much more professional.

I made my straps extra long (45 inches) because the co-worker I was making this for is "kinda hippy." My boyfriend's words, not mine =) Now my straps are long enough to wear over the shoulder, which I hear is the way hippies wear things nowadays!

 

 I also made an extra strap to put on the outside of the bag along with 2 fabric Yo-Yos. I think they came out super cute! Here is the yo-yo tutorial. Just an FYI, The yo-yos come out much smaller than what you start with. For the large yo-yo I used a CD for a template. 

I think the final product came out great!