Sewing a Pleated Bag with Vintage Curtains

Hello lovely blog friends. How are you?

I get so busy posting to social media, I don’t always put everything on my blog! I have lots coming up- but thought I’d post a few of the things I’ve been creating recently over a few back to back posts .

You know I love sewing- and after purchasing some vintage curtains from eBay, I set about creating a pleated bag and tried my very first recessed zip ( thank goodness for YouTube tutorials like this one!!)

It’s really hard photographing bags- my front door has to do. It gives you an idea of the shape. To be honest, I didn’t follow a pattern, I just mess around with it, find a shape I like and cut the lining out to the same size. I like to wing it!! 😂

You can see the pleating on this picture and I’ve actually folded the pleating back on itself to give the curved effect. It’s actually really easy!

I used to always add a ribbon tie for closing it, but it’s not very safe, so I conquered both the recessed zip plus some inner zipped pockets. Just don’t ask me to do them again without referring to the YouTube tutorial!

It made a real change from cards! I’ve plenty more to post- so I’ll get scheduling that. I’ve got the Clearly Besotted Teasers coming up at the end of the month, a new team I’ve joined and also some fun projects with Tonic products.

Keep a look out, there should be a few posts coming soon!

See you soon,

Keren x

Simple Pleated Bag

I had picked up some beautiful Laura Ashley fabric on sale. Some velvet fabric, a contrasting cotton and a main patterned fabric. 

It has sat in a bag for a while and yesterday I had a spare hour ( which ended up being 3 or 4 😂) and I had in mind a pleated bag with a big velvet bow.

Once I’d laid out roughly the design I wanted and added copious layers of interfacing, a bow looked too over the top, so I settled for a tied knot instead. 

I have secured the velvet into the sides of the bag so it’s integral rather than just a sash wrapped around. 

I had also wanted to add wooden circular handles but they ended looking out of proportion. It’s quite satisfying creating a bag in an organic process but a little frustrating as you wish you had more technical knowledge to help! I did take a few shortcuts- I shortened the length of the bag once I’d cut it out so didn’t want to waste the fabric and added it inside as pockets. The pockets are not as deep as I’d have liked but I’ve used the fabric up so that’s positive.

I had to add pockets as having made a few tote styled bags, you end up with a mass of junk at the bottom so these pockets help organise the contents a little. The velvet handles were using up the excess velvet that I’d sewn for the bow. If I’d had the fabric, I’d have added some red handles for contrast, but still love the end result. 

The pleating is underneath a wide top band. You can’t see the contrast on the front due to the knot. I used my Fiskars self healing mat to measure out the inches for pleating so that it was absolutely even.

Having two directions to the fabric really helps with the design, to lead the eye in different directions. 

During the late night sewing, I neglected to add in magnetic clasps. I will add some press studs for a simple closure. 

I love learning through experimentation. This was a case in point. I did have to hand crank a good proportion of the top stitching once I’d pulled the bag through the bottom of the lining. Maybe not using so many layers of interfacing would be a good idea next time- but I do love more structural bags, so this suits me perfectly! 

I have some beautiful floral silk to use next time, but I’ve never really sewn silk bags before. Anyone seen any great ideas or have any ideas? Please shout! 

Have a lovely day!

Keren xx

Bliss Bag & Sale-a-bration Blog Hop

 Good morning!! Hope you’re not shivering away like me! Isn’t it freeezing?!  Today I’m part of a blog hop organised by Pat with all the ILWS gals. There are 4 separate hops all using the Sale-a-bration sets so as to give you all some inky inspiration with using them. If you click on that ILWS link, it’ll show you the whole list. My round starts with me- but you may have come  from the lovely Hayley, so a big Hi! and welcome if you did.! I haven’t seen her blog post yet but I’m looking forward to peeking later! 

I’ve got 2 very different projects. The first was an idea of mine to use butterflies from ‘Bliss’  instead of a hot air balloon carrying a birthday present. The design needs a bit of reworking but at least it’s nice and bright! I had fun making the ‘strings’. I used the different ink refills to dye some plain embroidery thread. I just put a small amount of water in different plastic cups and added 4 drops of ink from the refills. Add lengths of string, leave for 15 minutes, then remove and let thread dry. To get a truer colour I probably needed a few more drops of colour. Ah well, I had fun playing! I’ve also entered this in Stampin Royalty

 for their challenge ‘Anything with wings’ . I’ve used the Happy Birthday from Punch Bunch and just cut offthe 3 edges of  the scallops. Onto my second project- a very hastily sewn ‘Bliss’ Bag. The light was chronic yesterday- and even messing around on Photoshop didn’t help any! The colour on the bag is as true as I could as I could get it ! The central panel was made from a cotton baby cot sheet I didn’t need any more. I stiffened the thin sheet with some interfacing. The ink stamped really crisp images. I used Pear Pizzazz and Old Olive ink. I added the designer buttons whilst munching my breakfast in a cafe this morning.  As a result of going to a place called the Quarter, I want yoghurt, muesli and fresh fruit for breakfast tomorrow and possibly all next week! The next stage of the hop is heading over to Blue Angel’s . I went for a nose yesterday and she’s got some beautiful cards on there.

On a personal front I was thinking about lots of things that I love whilst I was in town yesterday. My eldest boy has a real nonchalant disregard for his appearance, and I love the way he just doesn’t mind! I had to force myself not to comment as I looked on at this very scruffy but incredibly happy little guy. I also love learning how things are constructed. I was so excited browsing through bag patterns and picked up a few. Wish I’d taken more notice during my Textiles lessons. It’s never too late to learn something new, so you might find a few more bags popping up on here. I also love just looking around. I was like a little kid after popping to town yesterday, with so many inspiring images in my head. Oh to have time to write them down nevermind actually create something.  

Off to tidy up- normal energy levels are returning slowly!

If you want to visit the other blog hops-

Round 1 blog hop- Sarastamper

Round 2 blog hop- my-next-chapter

Round 3 blog hop- here!

Round 4 blog hop- creatinwithkirsteen

Card recipe: Crumb cake and Whisper white cardstock. Inks- all the ‘brights’ colours. Rhinestones. Marina mist satin ribbon. Stamp sets- Punch Bunch & Bliss. Linen thread. White embroidery thread (from my stash)

Bliss Bag- white and patterned cotton. Pear Pizzazz and Old olive ink. Designer buttons. Pear pizzazz ribbon.