April Sew Along: Biggie Yoga Mat Bag and a Glimma Sneak Peak

Well I’m a bit behind on the Sew Along due to not one, not two, but THREE gigantic boxes of product that arrived in the shop a few days ago. I’m STILL getting it all photographed and listed! Check out glorious Glimma by designer Lotta Jansdotter! There are 24 cotton prints, including four solids and SIX canvas prints to choose from. SO pretty!

     

OK, onto the Yoga Mat Bag Sew Along!

You’ve done your cutting; now it’s time to start sewing! Remember these are my notes on this SUPER PERFECT tutorial. It’s not a complete tutorial but a supplement to the one I’m referencing. For the record I LOVE the way she did it! WIth that said…here’s how I did it!

*IF ADDING A POCKET: Right sides together, pin and sew the pieces for the pocket up one long side, across the short side and back down the other long side, leaving one short side un- sewn. Clip the corners, turn right sides out and press well. Top stitch with a 3/4″ seam allowance from the top and then again with a 1/2″ seam allowance down from that line.

*Pin and sew each of the four straps together on one short side. Press the seams open.

*Take one strap from Fabric A and one from Fabric B. Place them right sides together, pin and sew. Make sure to START pinning at the seams, and pin out from there.

*Turn right side out and press well.

From here you can follow the tutorial at the Attach Your Handles section. I used that AMAZING Frixion pen to mark the lines.  If you hadn’t noticed I have a bit of a crush on it!

At #2 – IF YOU ARE ADDING THE POCKET- With your straps in place, lay your pocket on top and center it. Then tuck your pocket  under the straps and pin.

At #6 I made a bit of an adjustment. I marked/sewed the straps 1″ from the top of the bag as instructed in #5. However, she asks you to make a 1″ square. I marked one inch from the top and then 2″ down from that line. Larger strap, larger square.

Carry on with Stitch bag piece and inning pieces together section.  Make sure BEFORE you pin, as they lay right sides together, to pull back each side to see if the straps are lined up.  This is time to make any adjustments needed!

Next installation I will start back up with Create a Gusset. Never made one? No worries! They are really quite easy! The author of the tutorial goes into great detail and I’ll take bunches of pictures to help out!

HAPPY sewing!

p.s. I linked up with Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story to share my favorite yoga bag today.

April Sew Along – Yoga Mat Bags TWO Ways

April included Spring Break for those of us with kids, which means that life was a bit hectic to start the month! Personally, I wasn’t ready to tackle another large-scale project quite yet. My hope is to use the last two months of school to maximize my time behind the machine with all the small projects I’d like to get done before summer sincerely arrives!

SO….April will have TWO sew alongs!

April Sew Along Week 1-2 is this yoga mat tote bag.

I’ve made many of these and modified the tutorial a bit to achieve this result.

I’ll be sharing my changes to create two different customizing options in addition to the original tutorial!

We will be making the tote bag this week and next so start thinking about fabrics! This bag is quite large, so it’s a great place to show off large prints.

Sew Level: EASY.

It should take just 1-2 hours of your time depending on your skill level.

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Week 3-4 of the Sew Along will be this free yoga bag tutorial from Amy Butler. Thanks Amy!! This little guy has been on my to do list for quite a while now.

Because the project is quick (and hopefully easy) I’ll add in a few other quick tutorials for eye pillows to go along with your new yoga mat bags!

Just think how Zen you will feel when it’s all complete!

If you have time for one more this month, you can try this reversible tote:

or this sleeve for your iPad or Kindle!

Each take about an hour.

Which will you sew along with?

March Sew Along: Week 4

Here we are at Week 4!  The finished product!

The best part right?

My quilt took a bit of a left turn; let me see if I can explain….

To start, it took me WAY too long to decide on the backing fabric. I FINALLY came to settle on the Hexies in Tangerine.

I get so indecisive about these decisions and spend far too much time torturing myself with the possibilities.

 Please tell me I’m not the ONLY one who obsesses over seemingly irrelevant details.  Anyone else??

Any how, once I was ready to commit to the Hexies moved on to obsess about the binding.

That put me right over the edge!  I could’ve made TWO more quilts in the time it took me to decide that nothing looked RIGHT.

So, I switched gears!

Instead I used the pillowcase method like in this tutorial, leaving an opening to turn right side out.

Then top stitched along the Chevron pattern which I LOVE!

Next time I promise to be braver and TRY a binding I ‘m unsure of….but that is for next time.  🙂

In the end, it’s a perfect lap quilt for my daughter during summer road trips.

Small enough for the car and travel or just cuddling on the couch.

It’s a whole lotta orange but that’s what my girl likes, so orange it was!

I would love to see what you made!

 Feel like sharing?

March Sew Along: Week 3

Hello all!

For those of you sewing along I hope you are excited about Week 3!

(Click here for the Week 2 post.) This is the fun part, in my opinion.

This week we get to sew all these little guys into rows and discover how the quilt top looks when it comes together!

I don’t have a designated design wall, so I like to use my kitchen table to lay things all out and arrange, and rearrange them until I have JUST what I want.  When I was pleased with the layout, I stacked each row from left to right and then used a safety pin to keep the rows intact.  This served two purposes. First to keep the rows in order.  Secondly, the pin hole in the fabric shows me which side of the square is the TOP.   Once I had it all laid out I did not want ANY variation from my layout.  Those little pin holes proved very helpful!

Another option, if you don’t like the idea of holes in your fabric, is to use painter’s or masking tape.

Rip off small pieces, label them with numbers, and stick them to each block.

Just don’t forget to remove them after you’ve sewed your blocks together! Or use that nifty Frixion pen!

I discovered another helpful way to use that Frixion pen I shared with you last week!

I marked each row as I went so they did not get out of order!  My day, likely like yours, involves unlimited interruptions.

This allowed me to get interrupted and STILL not have to use the seam ripper to deal with errors!

Then I sewed each row and then the rows together!  It went surprisingly fast!

If I haven’t mentioned it before, while I’ve been sewing for years, I’m incredibly new to quilting, so don’t look TOO closely at the points.  However, I was happy with the overall look of the top when it was done. That middle chevron reminded me of Charlie Brown’s shirt!  I attempted to create an ombre effect within the chevron pattern in those two rows.  If I had cut out more squares at the beginning, I would have had more variety to work with and could have created this look with all of them.  Mental note for next time!

Now to select the backing!

Pop over to my Week One post here and let me know which you think I should use.

March Sew Along

March is here and it’s time to get together and sew a little something up!  Personally, I have few friends nearby who sew, let along quilt, so I would LOVE for you all to sew along with me!   It’s SO much more fun to sew together so please join in!

How does a Sew Along work?

First we pick a project!   This month’s project is this lovely little quilt designed by Caroline over at Sew Caroline.

Source: sewcaroline.com via Sew Fine Fabric on Pinterest

 

I adore how Caroline married two current trends in this baby blanket; ombre and chevrons!   She selected the Solid Ombre in Grey from the V and Co.’s Simply Color collection presented by Moda Fabrics.

Each week I will be posting on my progress with pictures, hints, and relevant tutorials.

Week One:  Project announced.  Time to select your fabrics!

Week Two: Start cutting and select your layout!

Week Three: Here is where we will get behind the machine and piece the top!

Week Four: Finally we will quilt and bind!  And of course pictures!  By this time there will be a Flickr group set up for all of us to SHARE our hard work!

I’m thinking of making my top out of this as my daughter is thrilled by orange!

I haven’t decided on the back quite yet.  I was thinking one of these.  Help me decide!  I’d love to hear your thoughts. Too much orange?

So will you Sew Along?  Leave a comment and let me know. I’d LOVE to see what you create!