Excited for a New Week!

Granny D here.  It's Make It Monday and I thought I'd share what I have going on in my head this morning.  Of course, it'll take me all week to get these all completed but, oh, the fun of creating.  Right.

I finished this cute little patcwork bag Saturday.  It can be made out of a 10" square so that gives you an idea of the size.

And last night I cut out the little Flower Power bag you see in the picture next to it.  I like that funky little flower and all of the different colors together

Even though the possibilities are endless, I get tired of making the same old boxy totes sometimes.  So I found another bag that I like.  It's softer and rounder.  Instead of the corners, it has darts to shape the bottom corners.









And I think I'm going to try something different by using interfacing in the top part and batting in the bottom part just to add to that soft, feminine, curvy look.  The fabric you see here is curtain fabric from that earlier fabric haul I spoke about.  Once I get this perfected, I'll probably use a pretty floral or something a little more dramatic to make it look a bit dressier.







Since purses and bags are mostly rectangles, I like to make my own patterns.  I have a big roll of paper.  Not sure if it's butcher paper or not but it's flexible enough to pin to fabric.  Here's a messenger bag pattern I cut out last night.
As you can see, it's not complicated at all and I did a little something with the strap.  It's 4" wide but I went ahead and cut the pattern 36" long.  Then I marked off like 22" and 29", you know, different lengths you'd use for different projects so I don't have to keep cutting out strap patterns.  Same goes for pockets.


That about does it for today.  Do you have any tips or tricks for cutting out your own patterns?  We'd love to know.