Boxy Bags

This weeks mission on Elm Street Quilts'  BAG IT series was to make some boxy bags.
I still have a QAYG (Quilt As You Go) bag to make to get caught up.

The first one made was the Medium Formula One car racing bag. The suggested tutorial was this.
And as soon as I got to the corners, I recalled this tutorial with dislike. I'd been down this rabbit hole before.

Yes, it results in no seams inside. Yes, it results in a bag that works. But it takes hours to do and the lining is floating around in there - too big - with no way to adjust it. I want to tack the corners of the lining to the outer fabric but I am resisting. Because I have spent enough time on this bag.

My cute checkerboard lining.

 The small Formula One and the Elephant Bag are made with this video tutorial.
Which is how it's done in RTW.

The lining is attached to the outer fabric via the serged seams, providing a nice neat interior.

Actually, I studied my son's Dopp Bag last year and the inside seams are finished with grosgrain ribbon folded over those exposed seams. And the lining is fused to the outer fabric.

 I don't mind my serged seams either. (Yes, I powered over those nylon zipper teeth at the side seam.). I put a drop of Fray-check on the corners where I trimmed the serger thread. The insides of these two bags are really clean.

And - it took 20 minutes to cut, fuse, and sew this bag compared to the hours spent on the first Boxy Bag. Who has that much time? No one will ever notice the inside - except for how loose it is in the first bag.

Lining all bunched up and loose. No way to cut it smaller or adjust . I am not tacking it down at the corners.

With cute tassel - made by me too.

Boxy Bags made in three sizes.

Baby: started at 8" x 6".
Mama: started at 13" x 8"
Daddy: started at 15" x 10"



I was thinking of making a Daddy Formula One bag but I ran out of my checkerboard lining fabric and grabbed some home decor fabric instead.

Formula 1 Lunch Bag

The third and final piece of my Formula 1 gift set is done.
I blogged about the first two pieces; a key fob and an ID zippered purse here.

I really like the lunch bag with the vinyl. It will be easy to see what is inside, whether it be food items or a place to store yarn.
I'm making two of these for my great-nieces when they get back to me on which animal fabric they want.

I'm going to add a D-Ring to the side panels and attach a cross-body webbing strap.

The clear lunch bag tutorial had very good directions and it took as long to cut the pieces out as it did to sew all the bias tape on.

My good friend in Sweden - who loves Formula 1, bought herself a new sewing machine last Christmas. I  will stuff this bag with her other two Formula 1 fun things and add Clover Wonder Clips and a few other sewing notions. I have to get more Wonder Clips myself! This is the best way to hold your bias tape, short of hand-basting it, to sew up  easily and neatly.

Formula 1 Sewing

I have a long time friend who lives in Gothenberg, Sweden, who is mad about Formula 1 racing.
As someone who also loves her hobby (airplanesairplanesairplanes), I can totally get on board about her obsession.

Even though she had to explain, patiently, the extreme difference between Formula 1 and Nascar.


It's been two years since I discovered Tuike's obsession.
 It's taken two years to find Formula 1 fabric.

I thought I'd have to print my own.
Which is problematic, since all of her favorite Formula 1 race drivers have their photos super copyrighted.


I discovered this Formula 1 fabric in Ireland (of all places!) on Etsy and the shop owner was happy to post some my way. 

Ironic? Fabric travels West 6000 miles to be cut up and reassembled and then posted East 6000 miles. And it might have come from the USA originally.   Well traveled fabric.

I made her the key fob straight away. Very easy project if you have the hardware. I bought mine on Etsy and then the key fob hardware sat in my hardware drawer for the better part of a year.

Then I sewed her this little wallet/purse with my Formula 1 fabric. I made one a week or so ago off a long-ago-posted tutorial.
A little small for Smarty pants phones of 2014, I slightly enlarged the dimensions by 1/2" longer and 1/4" wider. This allowed me to put my phone in the back pocket.

My fabric is home dec weight and worked just as well as quilting cottons in this wee little ID purse.
I made several changes to the original pattern. Number one was losing the double fold bias binding to cover the raw edges inside. I changed it to single fold  for less 'density' at the corners. In fact, I might even just serge the raw edges and leave off the binding next time.

I actually have, somewhere, in my sewing room another fabric I  bought to make pillow cases for Tuike. It wasn't totally Formula 1 but I had plans. It's now lost in the invisible special place. However, the good news is, while tossing the sewing room this time, I found my pink chalk pencil marker I had misplaced a good while ago. As in, I bought another one because it is one of my favorite notions.