Sewing to gift

Did a bity of sewing yesterday. Made a ladies toiletrie bag for my daughter for her birthday. Filled it up with some goodies and voila! A nice gift that is practical and pretty. I used this tutorial at http://patchyapple.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/patchyapple-boxy-bag-tutorial/ Stacy rocks with this tutorial. She guides you through each step of the process. She also has great visual photos as well to go with the written directions. I see myself making more of these to fill up and give as gifts for Christmas. They don't take long to make. I think it took me a little over an hour to make the one I made for my daughter. I used decorator weight fabric for the outer bag and cotton canvas for the the inner. Stacy suggest using fusible fleece on the outer fabric. I didn't have any, so I didn't use it. I think I will use it on my next bag though. It will help it hold it's shape more.

My eyes got big as walnuts as I finished up the last stitch and started to turn it right side out. I was so excited that it came out looking the way it was supposed to. I love the fabric and I think I will be making myself one as well.

This bag is one of the things I had on my "I want to make that" list this year. So, now I can scratch that one off. I would love to be able to make something with piping, but haven't seen any tutorials with that so far. I would also love to be able to make some slipcovered pillows that have zippers in them. Such a nice finishing touch to a pillow. Erin over at http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com/ has a pretty good tutorial for that. I gotta tell ya though, I am a little intimidated of that zipper installation. I don't know why, but I just am.

What tutorials or patterns do you like that you want to attempt to try this year? Share them with me. Who knows, maybe it will make it on my ever growing list as well.

Have a great day!

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