Bags galore!! Finally!! Completed all the grocery bags!!! Now I have a choice of bags to use when I go supermarket shopping!! There are 3 of each kind. The bags on the floor, the printed green and brown fabric are made from the two pieces of block out curtains. Made 10 out of them! There are 2 more sets of the colorful fabric bags which are not in this picture. I will post them on my next blog! I don't think I will make anymore of these as it was getting pretty crazy making them!!! I was just waiting to finish them ASAP! Getting bored after a while making the same thing!!! LOL

The bags that you can see at the bottom of the pile are made from old block out curtains. These are quite good and strong fabric which I think is nice for grocery bags. My sister gave me the curtains so I made them into bags for her. The rest of the bags are made from the nice fabric I bought from Nilai!

After cutting off the squares from the bottom of the bag, the next thing to do is to serge the sides.

After sewing the sides together, cut off two 4' x 4' squares at the bottom of the bag. This simple task took me quite some time to do because I have to do that to a total of 4o bags!! LOL

I flipped the handles up and sew a box with a cross just to make it stronger. I also double stitch the sides. These are grocery bags and they have to withstand a bit more weight than the normal shopping bags. I tried my best to finish as much as I can but still I find there are so much more to be done!!! I really need extra pair of hands!! LOL

After ironing the fold, draw the markings for the bag handles. I mark it on 5 - 6 and 12 - 13. I like to do it this way because as I sew, I can just slip the handle in between the fold at the marked area. There is no need to use pins to hold the handle in place.

I can cut three bags from 1m of printed fabric. The handles are cut from some plain fabric. Fold the fabric into half. Cut out each bag measuring 19" x 18". At the top and bottom of the wrong side of the bag, draw a line 2" from the top and another 3" from the top. Fold the fabric to the 2" line then to the 3" line and iron. For the handles cut out strips of 48" x 4" strips. After sewing the strips, half them into 24" strips.

I do have a lot of sewing to do before my holiday! LOL

Eco Bags

I went to Nilai the other day with my friend, Haminah. We ended up buying quite a fair bit of these fabrics to make eco grocery bags. These are heavy cotton fabrics and they will make wonderful grocery bags... the fabric is thick enough unlike those green bags in the supermarket which tear easily. Go Green is a good idea but I don't agree with some supermarkets which charge their customers for using the discarded paper boxes there. They should give their customers an option of either paying for the plastic bags or use paper boxes. I know of one supermarket which has prices for different size boxes.......LOL

Japanese bag

Lately, I have been buying a few of this Japanese pattern books and I told myself that I must make something from each of the books! This is one of the pattern in the book that I like. I modified the pattern a little bit because I wanted the bag to be slightly longer. I added some fabric at the bottom of the bag. This bag has a drawstring at the top so there is no strap or flap needed. There is one more pattern I would like try and make.........well, just have to see how it goes....!! LOL

CLown

I made this for Aunty Linda. She loves clowns. The body is also made of wood. The head is a styrofoam ball so I used a glue gun and stick the hair on. This is much easier than the doll! With the doll, I had to sew the hair. As you can see, this clown can also sit anywhere without falling off!! Just have to be careful if you have toddlers around.. that piece of wood inside is quite heavy.

I couldn't resist making a matching book cover for my Daily Light!! This one is without the pockets and the strap. It's just a simple cover.