Lunch Bag

I've been trying to get in the habit of packing my lunch for work every day, but I just can't seem to break the out-to-lunch habit. So I decided to make a cute lunch bag to pack in! If nothing else I'll feel bad never using something I worked so hard to create, and I'll start packing lunch out of guilt. I think it'll work, right?

I used this tutorial by Martha Stewart as a guide, but changed some things to make my bag just how I wanted it. First I cut two pieces of each of my two fabrics, all four pieces being 9" x 13". I guess it's only necessary to cut two identical pieces of the same fabric, but I wanted a cute and different pattern on the inside of my bag. Not to mention the extra fabric gives it some stability.

I took a piece of each pattern and sewed wrong sides together, making two pieces like this by sewing all the way around. I was sure to use a teeny tiny seam allowance (like 1/8").

Once I made my two pieces I put right sides together and sewed around 3 sides (1/4" seam allowance), leaving one short side completely open. The right sides can be either one of the fabrics, but in this case I wanted the white fabric to be the outside of my bag, so I put those two sides together before I started sewing.

After sewing around the 3 sides, I turned the bag inside out and took it to the ironing board. By folding the top of the bag in about 1/4" and ironing, I created a nice crease to top stitch around and give the top of the bag a finished look.

At this point my bag looked like this:

I could've stopped here if I just wanted a simple sack to carry things in, but I wanted the bottom of my bag to be flat. To do this turned the bag inside out and folded the bottom to a point.

Then I opened the top flap up toward the top of the bag to create a diamond shape.

I measured 2" from each tip (top and bottom), drew a line from left to right, and then sewed across each line.

After I created the seam, I cut off the excess fabric on the other side of the stitched line (scrap will be a triangle). Now the bottom of my bag looks like a rectangle!

Almost done! Again, I could leave my bag like this, but I wanted to give it a little more structure. Back the ironing board I went! I folded the sides in on each side and ironed creases to create the paper bag shape.

Finally, I top stitched along each side to keep the creases and just like that, I had a lunch bag! One with cupcakes on it, at that :)

Now, if only I can manage to pack a lunch and show it off!

Simple Fabric Wallet

Well, what do you say we skip the introductions and jump right in to a blog? Last week I started a Sewing 101 class at this adorable sewing school by Belmont University, and our first official project was to make a simple wallet. I decided to practice my skills on something I've done before, all while taking plenty of pictures for a blog post :) For this project I used 1/4 yard of 2 coordinating fabrics, as well as 1/4 yard of fusible interfacing (#809 Decor Bond by Pellon was recommended by my teacher).

Using a pattern handed out at class, I cut a total of 8 pieces before I started sewing. 

• Two (2) 7 1/2 x 4 3/8 of my main wallet fabric
• Two (2) 4 3/8 x 5 3/8 of my pocket fabric
• Two (2) pieced of interfacing matching my main wallet fabric dimensions
• Two (2) pieces of interfacing measuring 2 3/8 x 3 7/8

I used both the pattern drafted on paper and I drafted it directly on to the fabric. Both examples are shown below:

Once I had everything cut out, it was time to do some ironing. First, I ironed the matching interfacing on to the wrong side of both of my main wallet pieces (being sure to press the iron down and hold, not press  back and forth).  Then I fused the smaller interfacing to one half of each pocket piece, aligning the edge of the interfacing with the middle crease I had made by ironing each pocket piece in half. The main piece looked like this:

I then pinned the pocket pieces right side up to the right side of one main wallet piece. By putting the creased edge at the top I made a better line and avoided an extra step of sewing.

Then, putting right sides together (I learned that term in class, yay!) I sandwiched the pocket pieces between my main pieces. After pinning the sides, I measured 3 inches from top and bottom, and made a set of notches to not sew between - have to have somewhere to turn it inside out!

Sewing at the bottom blue line, I sewed around the entire rectangle (1/4" seam allowance) but was sure to end at the other blue line. I backstitched on each side to keep it from unraveling when turning it inside out. 

Once it was all sewed, I cut the corners

Then the hard part - turning it inside out! I started by pulling one corner through, and the rest seemed to follow. 

It looked like that! Woo hoo! Almost done! Now just time to top stitch around the edge for a polished look (and to sew the part I left undone earlier). This requires a really tiny 1/8" seam allowance to be sure a credit card can still fit in the pocket!

I ironed it in half to keep the crease and that was that! I had my very first wallet!