Here is my second bag for the Paisley Bauble Bag swap over at CQN. These first two pics are of the pouch, completed, and the draw cords pulled.
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This is the block pieced, embellished, lined and turned. You can see there is only stitching in certain areas of the bag. I will point out here that these little bags are usually made with 2 fat quarters, a patterned and a plain. They are very easy to do. As I said in a previous post , I had pieced the block because I was too impatient to wait for the instuctions to arrive. You will see as I go,which bits end up on the inside. Here is a link to show you how to do these. I will persevere with how I did this, as it was a little different. ( i found this after I had made the block!!)
Turn your block on point, plain side up, fold one side in (note where the embellishment is). It must fold far enough in so that it touches the fold on the other side.
Fold the next side in. At this point you hand sew where the two sides overlap. On this piece it is mostly the black fabric. Just sew the top two layers..mind you dont catch the back! You only have to do it along that outside flap. This forms the pocket. The bit that is face down (apart from the flaps) is the inside of the bag, so you see, I could of saved a fair whack of pretty fabbies if I had waited!!
Fold the bag as in the pic above
You can see now how the pouch will come together. At this point I hand sewed the sleeve, the turned inside out and stitched the sides up. You are supposed to do that corner thing to give a base, which I prefer, but it lost quite a bit of the stitching underneath, so I have left this one flat.
Here is this side completed, with the draw cords added. You can see how if I had machined the sleeve for the draw cord, it would of gone right across the embroidery. I hand stitched this. You can see how it should look in the pic below. That link will show you how to do the cords.
...and here is the other side, with the flap closed, and below, the flap open, with a wee note inside.
The finished size of my pouch is about 10cm x 15cm. I started with an approx 12" block. If you want a bigger bag, start with a bigger block!
Here is the inside of the bag, and that *fantastic* orange fabric. So you end up with a small bag with two pockets. this one would be alright for a night out. You would fit your lippy, phone and money card in it, no problems.
Once I got started on the embellishing it didn't go to bad. All the colour was quite freeing, I didn't really think about what I used, just went for a good contrast. I am quite happy with how this has turned out.
If you have any questions, ask away. You will find Little Mochi's instruction far easier to follow.
