Christmas Gifts–Zippered Bags

What fun to make my “girls” each a great zippered bag, plus one for me too.  These are not just any zippered bag but are special for several reasons.  One big reason is the bag is designed by my good friend Geta Grama from Romania.  Her website is Romanian Quilt Studio where she sells this and other patterns and her blog is Geta’s Quilting Studio.  Please check out her other patterns too.

Now let me show you what is so special about these bags.  This is not just a one pocket zippered bag but it has a surprise inside.Isn’t that wonderful….a second zippered compartment stitched into the inside of the bag.  The smaller zippered bag is stitched into the side seams and and the bottom of the bag so will stay put and really divides the main part of the bag into two sections.This frog fabric bag is mine.  With this bag I followed Geta’s instructions exactly and used the medium size pattern.  The pattern has a small, medium and large size pattern for this zippered pouch.  As you can see the outside is all one fabric….frogs; a goofy thing I collect and am always on the lookout for frog fabric.

I wanted to use more fabrics on the outside of the other bags I made so I seamed two pieces together 3” from the bottom of the main piece.   It was fun to go through my fabric stash and choose fabrics for each one.  This one was for my 13 yr. old granddaughter S who loves black and white, animal prints and pink.   I really like the tiger fabric but had never cut into the fat quarter I had purchased.

   

Next on the list is the bag for the 12 yr. old granddaughter D.  For her I chose horse fabric.  She loves anything with horses, has her room decorated with horses so knew this would be perfect for her.

For my daughter A I made a bag with bright fabrics.  It was fun to use these fabrics, some which I have had for a very long time.  Using some of my stash with these bags is a very good thing.

This final bag I am going to show you is one I made for my daughter S.  I have had this Laurel Burch fabric for years and years and could not bear to cut into it until now.  It makes a great bag and I have used a bit more of my stash.

These were fun to make and fun to give away.  Like I said earlier I did piece the outside fabric to add the second fabric to the bottom of each bag so changed Geta's pattern a bit.  Arbitrarily I decided on the seam coming 3” from the bottom of the outside pattern piece.  I seamed the fabrics together then fused it to a fusible fleece batting.  This makes the bags stand up very nicely. 

Did you notice all the pretty zippers I used in making all these bags?  When the JoAnn’s fabric store near here changed locations a few years ago they sold all the merchandise, reducing the prices as the time came closer for the old building to close.  I just couldn’t resist buying lots of zippers when the price was so low, some I got for as little as $.20 each.  I bought long zippers that had plastic teeth.  These zippers can be cut any length so I am all set for any project.  I did keep all the tails I cut off this time but now I need a project to use them.  Any ideas?
Until later,
Lynn