Would it be a stretch to say we're all at risk for becoming bag ladies?

I know I am. It's one of the dangers associated with knowing how to make your own bags. It's just too hard to stop. And then you turn your friends into bag ladies, and it's all good. Or you could use it as a screening tool for bosses [very effective; the 2 bosses I've had and liked have both been bag ladies, the one I was lukewarm on was not].

So. Inspired by Alicia's lovely Jane Market Bag and this pressing need to use down the stash before Memorial Day weekend, when I am squeezing the contents of my one-bedroom apartment into my friend's studio that I'm subletting for the summer and the less I need to move the better, and also because I am desperately in need of a new grocery bag because it is shameful the number of plastic bags I have accumulated, I hunted through the scraps and larger pieces I transported from CA to MA, and found myself a nice little blue theme.


The center panel is a vintage curtain from a lady who was selling her mom's old textiles on Craigslist, also used here. The corduroy was salvaged from when I chopped up Handmade Skirt #2 (a.k.a. Failed Skirt #1) to make this skirt, and I think that's the last of it which is GOOD because it had the slightest bit of stretch that drove me nutso every time I worked with it. The rest is miscellaneous Joann stash and i have to say, this is one scrappy bag. I did all sorts of random piecing improvisations as things didn't quite turn out the way they were supposed to - I wound up cutting something an inch too short, or my math got fuzzy, or I forgot that I had left raw seams somewhere.

And after all of that, I still didn't make a lining. This exterior was already one of my better shots at getting a cohesive, large amount of fabric to work with. There was no way I was going to piece a lining as well. So I finished the edges and hoped for the best.


But happily it holds quite a bit! The pockets are the perfect width and depth for my wallet, the boxy size is great for stacking all sorts of yummy foods and oddly shaped bits of produce, and I really love the center fabric. Which is good, because after this test run I'm thinking I may need to make more of these. Of course I do. If I'm moving apartments, I need something to carry my stuff in, right? And less fabric to transport, right?

You can be sure it will be as scrappy as this one.