Interim Projects: Apron and Goodie Bags

My fabric is apparently taking the scenic route from California to Washington, because the last Fed-Ex update I have is from when it shipped from Sacramento on the 12th.

To keep myself busy in the meantime, in between all the Christmas shopping, pre-feast dieting, and decking of the halls, I've been puttering around the sewing room. First up was an apron made from scrap fabric we had around, done in the same pattern as an apron I made for my friend last winter.

Because I strive to be a domestic diva in all things possible.

It looks deceptively simple for all the work I put into it. The top has an interfaced facing, those straps had to be turned and pressed, and the ties in back and the whole flounce along the bottom (which is the whole reason why I picked this pattern) have narrow hems. I must have done a million yards of narrow hems by now, but they never get any quicker or more fun. On the upside, quilting cotton is pretty stable and easy to work with, so I had that going for me.

Once I finished that, it was on to the next project: goodie bags for an upcoming cookie exchange. I wanted to make drawstring bags that could hold 3-6 cookies each and could be reused, and they had to be simple, because I needed to make 14 of them. I haven't sewn things en masse since I was 8 and made blankets for every single one of my toy horses.

Toy horses are notoriously vulnerable to the icy winds of winter.

My original thought was getting some pretty festive organdy (a stiff, sheer fabric somewhat like chiffon) to use, but Jo-Ann's was surprisingly deficient in the holiday fabric department. Which was strange, because normally you can find holiday fabrics up the wazoo there (for Easter and Halloween, at least).

While their organdy selection was sadly lacking, I did find some cute homespun fabrics in green and red, and I finally picked one that has shiny red and green threads running through it.

The "pattern" I'm using is just a rectangle, 10-1/2" by 14", that will be folded in half to make a 9-1/2"x6" pouch. At least it was until I laid out my fabric and discovered that I wouldn't be able to fit my pattern piece on there enough times to get 14 pouches out of 1-2/3 yards of fabric. I shaved off half an inch so that the pattern's new dimensions were 10"x14", and that did it. By cutting conservatively, I was just able to get my 14 pieces out. 

Rectangles are the best.

After I cut out the pieces, I finished the top edge of the bag by pressing under 1/2", sewing close to the raw edge, and then zig-zag stitching over the raw edge to keep it from unraveling. It's not as elegant an edge as a narrow hem, but I couldn't be bothered to do that much pressing.

Step 2 was to sew up the sides to form the actual bag. That went quickly because after the first few, I decided to stop using pins and just hold the edges together while I sewed them up. LIKE A BOSS

If I was making just one of these for myself, I would have pressed the seams flat... but I wasn't, so I didn't.

Step 3 was to put in casing. Because I am lazy and also wanted to conserve fabric, I decided to sew on a wide ribbon as the drawstring casing, rather than pressing down more of the bag top and losing volume. The wide ribbon also adds a bit of decorative flair.

Again... no pins. Skillz.

After that, I just threaded in my thinner organdy ribbon, tied it off, and voila! 

The color is weird because my camera hates incandescent lights and the color red.

My original plan was to do a double-drawstring bag, but in the interest of finishing the project before midnight, I decided to just do a single drawstring and call it good. It cinches up nicely, and I added a little extra ribbon so that the bag can be fastened with a knot, if desired.

After putting together 14 of those suckers, I'm really glad that I went for a reasonably simple pattern. Sometimes my ambitions get the better of me, but this time I actually started a project and finished it quickly. Go me!