20th January - Gracie's Grab Bag

Today I made a Grab Bag for our eldest granddaughter Grace’s 7th birthday. We bought the fabrics in Albany and now we are within days of seeing them all and I wanted to have it ready to give her. The pattern for this bag is a free one from www.allpeoplequilt.com and I was fortunate enough to receive the link to it from Kathy, my Sockee friend in Australind, Western Australia. So thank you Kathy, it has come in very handy indeed and I found the perfect funky fabric and motif to make a great birthday gift for a special granddaughter!



At first I was able to work on the table outside but once the shade disappeared I moved inside with the menfolk. It got to 37° so it was too hot let alone glaring in the sun to keep working out there.

And I even remembered to take photos of the process – woohoo! How organised is that? Here are the fabrics for the bag. Grace’s favourite colour is purple and her second favourite colour is hot pink. Hence the colour choices – the fabric is purple even though it looks blue in the photo. The hot pink is for the lining and the other purple is for a square to put on the front as a background for a couple of iron-on motifs that I forgot to include in the photo. And  I’ve also put a close-up of the fabric – I was fortunate to find just the sort of thing I was looking for.

It took me most of the day to do the bag, partly because I did a sample one first. I had reduced the pattern, since I am doing it for a seven year old of small stature and the pattern is for an adult. Fortunately I had some pale pink homespun with me – I packed it for the holiday just in case I needed it for something. With my my youngest daughter having her 4th baby in November I hoped I might get a chance to buy some nice baby-themed patchwork fabric after bubs was here and start on a quilt. So I had pink for if it was a girl and pale yellow if that was more suitable for the fabric I bought – for lining or accessories or whatever. I didn’t bring blue because I figured that if I needed it I would buy the right blue for the fabric. However I haven’t found any baby fabric that I like.

But I had the pink homespun so I cut out the reduced pattern and made up the bag – just one layer, no wadding, no lining, no neatening or anything. Just to see if it still ‘sat’ properly when done in this size. It did, but I chose to add just a tiny bit more to it when I cut out the fabric itself.

After that I had to buy more time on the internet to download the instructions once more – I did print them out before but have them stored – somewhere. Under the bed, I think. It was easier to download them again. Of course they are stored on my computer and portable hard drive, but they are both dead and in being replace at the moment.

I ironed the motifs on the purple square then stitched them on so that they won’t come loose in the wash. The photo here shows the purple square – rectangle really - just sitting in place. Then I stitched the purple bit on to the front of the bag. But it kept going crooked (yes, I did pin it vbg) and I ended up doing the jolly thing 3 times. Not hard sewing but boy is it ever fiddly unpicking – always is, no matter what kind of stitching! I really must get my eyes checked when we are back in Sydney. I had lots of trouble seeing clearly. I would have liked to have done a monogram in hot pink in the lower right corner but I couldn’t work out how to enlarge the monogram sufficiently on my machine and of course I don’t have my embroidery machine with us on this trip – so you see I did draw the line somewhere after all lol! I could have done Grace’s whole name in the space but I don’t think it’s a good idea in this day and age to advertise a child’s name.

After I managed to get the motif attached to the front I started on the lining, to which I added iron-on Pellon before I cut it out. I did some pockets for the inside. First I did a long one to go across one side, and did a fancy stitch (a string of flowers) across the top. Just because I could and I liked the look of it. I do love my sewing machine. Once attached I stitched down the centre (three times for strength) to make two pockets. Because I had a bit of ‘pocket’ left, I added a small one to the other side too rather than waste it.

Then finally it was time to start assembling the bag. This didn’t take nearly as long as all the preliminary stuff had taken. The instructions are clear and well written and they are accompanied by diagrams that make it a breeze to go through the steps. It came out very well and I think Gracie will like it. Lovely funky fabric, a great design in her favourite colours – what more could a modern 7-year old miss ask for? Well, I hope that’s the way it will be, anyway lol!

I love making things for my children and grandchildren – the challenge in this day and age is finding things to make for them. But with this great site I think there will be lots more ideas to find.

I really recommend this site to you – have a look, join up and have access to heaps of great designs. Now to find a something for our oldest daughter’s birthday in April......