Sew Together Bag Sewing

 My weekend quilting consisted mostly of finishing up five “Sew Together Bags” (pattern available here) that I had started a few weeks ago. I think I pieced together the outer bag patchwork pieces a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, but then things got a little crazy! So it was a high priority to get these finished up as they are all gifts. The non-patchwork bag in the front is just a little different than the others…more on that later in this post.

 I did a couple of things different this time around…for one thing, I used “Soft & Stable” (available here) for the outer bag interfacing only (I used Shape-Flex for the inner pieces that needed interfacing). With “Soft and Stable” you need only minimal quilting to keep it together, so I did some straight lines around the patchwork sections. On the four patchwork bags I used linen for the bottom sections of the bag and just did some straight line quilting down each edge.  Wonder Clips work great to hold things together when working with Soft & Stable. It’s a little more difficult to use regular pins.

The two summery patchwork bags were made using Aloha Girl by Fig Tree & Company (available this spring) with a little Somerset mixed in. The tan linen is Moda Mochi Linen in Natural. The black and white bag is made with Weeds by Me & My Sister for Moda with Essex Linen in Black, and the other bag is made with Somerset by Fig Tree.

Something else I did different this time was to use double-slide handbag zippers for the outer zipper. Not only is this nice because you can open the back quickly by pulling on both zippers, but it also meant I didn’t have to worry about getting the zipper to match the interior zippers! I can’t take credit for this idea, though, my friend Kaitlyn suggested it! The shop in the link above for the Soft & Stable is also a great source for these zippers. 

 Now just a word about the non-patchwork bag. You might have noticed it’s just a little shorter than the other bags…

 Also, the smaller bag has just two interior zipper pockets rather than three like the bigger bags. This “mini” Sew Together Bag was the genius idea of my friend Elizabeth at Occasional Piece-Quilt! She figured out a way to make the bag just a bit smaller, and with permission from the original pattern designer posted about her version on her blog. Elizabeth also has a worksheet available for free download on her site that gives you the formulas to make the smaller bag (use the link above to get to the specific post Elizabeth wrote on these bags). In order to make the mini, you have to own the original pattern, and there is a small amount of math involved; however, the results are terrific. Now that I’ve tested the smaller version, I’m actually going to make about 4-5 more for gifts. It’s such a great pattern, and having the mini option makes it even better!

The interior of the black and white bag is so fun. I was able to use many different prints for the individual pocket sections!

It was good to get these checked off of my list. But I do have another batch of these to  make before Christmas!

Thanks so much for stopping by!