I decided since most of us are home trying to find ways to occupy ourselves or entertain our children, I would try to focus my upcoming posts on some fun crafting to get you (and me) through these long, largely unstructured, days.
For this project I found a pair of old jeans that were going to be donated and I decided to cut them up and make one of my favorite things, a zipper bag. I have tons of them in my purse to try to organize my things and frankly, I can never have enough!
If you want to follow along, here are a few supplies you will need:
An old pair of jeans, cut into two rectangles of the same size. This will be the outside of the bag.
Two rectangles of kona cotton fabric cut to the same size as the denim rectangle. This will be the liner.
A 9 inch zipper
A needle for sewing an embroidery design onto one of the denim rectangles.
Embroidery floss in the color of your choice.
A wooden embroidery hoop in which to place your fabric and create your embroidery design
I started by placing one of my denim rectangles into a wooden hoop to embroider. I used a white gel pen to sketch “random stuff”.
I love white gel pens for sketching on dark fabrics to create my embroidery designs. I use them all the time. They are really cool on dark paper, too. I even use them in my watercolors to add white highlights.
I used a variegated thread and some straight stitches and french knots to create my lettering.
I added some extra bling such as small pom-poms, random cross stitches, and sparkly beads
Pictured above are my two rectangles of denim, two rectangles of cotton fabric and a 9 inch zipper.
The size of the rectangles are approximately 9.5 by 5.5 inches. When you are picking a zipper, it is best to go bigger since you can always trim it down.
It helps to iron your pieces of cotton before starting.
Lay the zipper (which has been opened) wrong side down on top of the outside piece of fabric.
Not pictured (oops) fold the denim right sides together and the cotton pieces right sides together being sure to leave the zipper open for turning inside out when you are done. Sew around the entire perimeter of the piece leaving a small opening in the cotton part for turning inside out. Once you have finished sewing the perimeter and turning the piece inside out, sew the opening in the lining closed.
And that’s it!
Now I just have to find some random stuff to put in it. That should be easy!
Well I hope you are finding lots of projects to do while staying home. I’m taking it slow these days and cooking a lot. A great time for some spring cleaning, as well:)
Stay well!
Warmly,
Pam