Sewn-up Christmas: Part 3 - Handmade drawstring linen laundry/shoe bags

For the last of my "Sewn-up Christmas" gift ideas, here are some drawstring bags that manage to look pretty impressive notwithstanding that they were really easy to make (remember this is early days for me in the adventures of sewing).

They can be used as laundry bags (especially useful for keeping handwash items separate from the rest of your laundry) or a shoe bag, for taking your nice shoes to work without spoiling them (and your back) on the city streets.

To make each bag, I cut a piece of fabric approximately 90cm by 45cm. I pressed the edges with an iron to form a single hem of about 7mm (ie just folded over once) and machine stitched this hem all the way around the fabric. At each short edge of the fabric, I folded over about an inch of the fabric (this will need to be big enough to fit your ribbon/tape/string) and sewed this down on the wrong side of the fabric, using a zig zag stich for a bit of interest. I then threaded the ribbon through both ends, sewed the ends of the ribbon together (leaving about 20cm on each side of the bag) and then turned the bag to the wrong side and sewed up the sides before turning back to the right side. It was that simple.

For the design, I drew a botanical pattern on a piece of A4 paper, then cut it out using a scalpel and a cutting mat, to leave me with a stencil. Holding it down carefully (and this was quite an intricate stencil, so I must admit, I did use my husbands fingers as extra holding-down tools), I used a sponge to apply white fabric paint over the stencil and then carefully lifted it off the paper to reveal my design.  To fix the paint, I placed an old cloth over the design and ironed over it for a few minutes to fix the paint.  The bag is now ready to use and washable up to 40 degrees!

For Part 1 of my Sewn-up Christmas gift ideas, see Handmade Linen Coasters

For Part 2 of my Sewn-up Christmas gift ideas, see Handmade Pears and Apple Tea Towel

Sewn-up Christmas: Part 2 - Handmade Pears and Apple Tea Towel

I love tea towels. Especially anything colourful and fun or any made from beautiful linen. And, being both pretty and practical, I think they make great gifts.

I made this cute tea towel below by simply hemming the edges of a piece of cotton fabric, sewing a decorative edging along the bottom and then printing the bottom section using halves of an apple and pear and some lime green and bright red fabric paint.

You may recall in your early school days dipping potatoes and fruit into bowls of paint. However, I think a more economical and effective way is to paint the fabric paint onto the fruit using a brush before stamping onto the tea towel. To finish the design, I hand painted on the stems in dark brown. To fix the fabric paint, cover the painted design with a cloth (that you don't mind getting dirty) and iron over for a few minutes.

Be sure to let your apple and pear halves dry out for a few hours before printing with them. Although I did this, I still found that the colour changed the more prints I did (although I quite liked that effect). I think this was to do with the fruit juices mixing with the paint, so if you want to keep your colours consistent, wipe the fruit with a piece of kitchen towel in between each stamp.

This is a great one to get kids involved in during the holidays. And, of course you can experiment with other fruit and veg - pineapple rings or broccoli trees for example. It works well to use a paint colour the same as the fruit/veg that you are printing with.

If you want to skip the sewing bit, just buy a plain or striped tea towel and apply your fruit stamps to that.

Have fun!


p.s. for Part 1 of Sewn-up Christmas, see my post on Hand Painted Linen Coasters

Sewn-up Christmas: Part 1 - Hand Painted Linen Coasters

I have been day-dreaming for some time about all these wonderful Christmas presents I was going to make now that I have my own sewing machine. So yesterday, with just over a week until Christmas, I decided the time had come to stop dreaming and get on with it.

First up, here are the coasters I made for some dear friends of mine. Each set of 4 has a different botanical themed design.

Here's how I made them (instructions are for one set of 4 coasters):

1. First, I cut out 8 squares of my chosen linen fabric. Each square was 13.5cm on each side. After cutting the first one, I used this as a template for the others by pinning it down on the fabric and cutting around it.
2. With each square, I pressed seams of around 7mm all around, then chopped the corners that stuck out, so they wouldn't be bulky once sewn together.
3. I then sandwiched two squares (pressed seams together), pinned in place and sewed around, finishing with a backstich.
4. Once all coasters had been sewn, I painted on my designs using black fabric paint. To fix the paint, I covered the coaster (design side up) with a piece of cloth and ironed over it for a few minutes. Voila!

They may not be perfect, the corners are a little iffy in places and the linen squares didn't always fit neatly on top of each other, but, being a novice at this sewing lark, I was pretty chuffed with them. And my friends who received them seemed to be too.

Variations: You could use the same technique with bigger rectangular pieces of fabric to make place-mats or double the coaster square size and add some wadding in between for a trivet. For the design, you could also have a go with stencilling or printing using potatoes or cut fruit.  Alternatively, just stitch across the coaster with different stitches in a contrasting thread.

Day 13 "Art Every Day Month" - Handmade Tea Towel

If I was charging the hourly rate I used to charge as a banking lawyer, this might be perhaps the most expensive tea towel every created, since it took me nearly 4 hours to make (that's around $2000 in "lawyer" time then). OK, so I am not an experienced sewer. That's actually an understatement. This is my first sewing effort with my very first sewing machine. So most of those 4 hours were spent working out how to set up and use the thing. But I learnt a lot. As well as learning how to wind my bobbin, insert it correctly, thread the top thread and pick up the bottom thread, I also learnt that I hate sewing. Can't stand it. Really, it's one of the most stressful things I've done since spending 3 hours working on a loan agreement to then have "the system" go down on me and lose all my work. But the biggest surprise of all? I was actually so chuffed with the end result that I'm willing to put myself through it all again! So I shall persevere and see if it gets easier and less frustrating the more I do it.

Anyway, here is the tea towel, complete with (very proudly) mitred corners, a ribbon loop, decorative  edging on the bottom (which I had bought at a cute store in Vienna) and an appliqued strip of contrasting fabric on the top.  I also thought about adding a pear "stamp" with some fabric paint, but I think 4 hours is enough time spent on one tea towel!

As much as I'd like to give you a "how to" guide, I really don't think I'm the person to be giving sewing lessons. Well not just yet, anyway...