DIY Messenger Bag from Jeans

Do you have old jeans lying around waiting to be given a new life? I find the size works as a small handbag for an adult too. You may just want to make the strap a little shorter to make it a clutch.

I will attempt to describe how to assemble one of these cuties. Where words fail, I hope the pics will be of help.

The method for this pattern creates a boxy pouch WITHOUT sewing BOXED CORNERS! ...and that's a good thing.

I came across a very, very simple drawstring bento bag pattern; thinking it would be a delightful project to share as a tutorial. However, when the bag was complete, it seemed a bit small, barely fitting my 4.5" square bento box. So I worked on a 'formula' (did I tell you I'm a numbers geek?) to customize a pattern to fit your bento lunch box.

D.I.Y Free Sewing Tutorial : Make your own Cosmetic Bag

Oven Mitt and Pot Holder Free Sewing Tutorial.

Today I will be sharing a tutorial for an English Paper Pieced tote! This tote finishes at approximately 13.5"H x 11"W x 4"D.

Selvedge, Selvage… whether you speak English or American, they’re the same thing. They are a gorgeous piece of fabric that often just gets thrown away. And that’s a shame.

Here’s how I sew easy inset circles using freezer paper and glue. Here is Folded Star (Somerset) Tutorial

How To: Somerset Star. Lots of people were asking how I did the star, so here’s a little tutorial to walk you through it.

So today I bring you an English Paper Piecing Tutorial! One of my long term projects right now is an English Paper Piecing (EPP) project. This project will take me forever, and I am quite all right with that!

This is the perfect bag to throw your stuff in for a trip to the pool, or the park, or anywhere you need to go this summer.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot of little things filling my purse. I love these little zipper pouches to keep those things a little more organized. In fact, wanting a pouch like this was the reason I started sewing in the first place. I’ve been making these little pouches for almost three years and I’m happy to share exactly how I make now, with perfect end tabs on the zipper.

Sling Pouch with Exposed Zipper Tutorial

This one came about specifically with a trip to Disneyland in mind. You’ve got to take your phone and wallet with you, but there are all those rides where you get splashed, so here’s my solution: a small pouch you can sling over your shoulder, it fits your phone and a card wallet, plus chapstick and lip gloss.

Messenger Bag Tutorial Part 6: Finishing the Bag. (The beginning here)

Messenger Bag Tutorial Part 5: Making Bag Lining

Part 5. Messenger Bag Tutorial: Making Bag Lining. (The beginning here)

Messenger Bag Tutorial Part 4: Installing Snap, Making Flap, Constructing Bag Body. (The beginning here)

Messenger Bag Tutorial Part 3: Straps, Piping, Zipper Pouch. (The beginning here)

Messenger Bag Tutorial Part 2: Cutting Instructions

This begins the tutorials for my messenger bag. Supply list is here. Because this is quite an involved project, it's too much for a single post.

It was a great bag for a while. I made up the design myself, which is good and bad. I made mistakes on this one. One of my worst mistakes was using light-colored quilting weight fabric rather than home dec. The bag wore out quickly. After just one washing it lost a lot of its body and just slumped after that. It lasted about a year and then went on the top shelf of the closet. I held onto to it for that day when I wanted to duplicate it, since overall I really liked the design

Friendship Hexagon Mini - traditional Friendship Star block.
Want to make your own Friendship Hexagon block? Here's a super easy tutorial to follow for a 12.5" unfinished block.

Double Flip Half-Square Triangle Tutorial

This sophisticated cousin of the half-square triangle unit can be used in any half-square triangle block you can think of, and is made quite simply. Starting with a half-square triangle unit, you add a smaller square and sew along the diagonal using a stitch-and-flip technique, much like you use in improvisational piecing.

This super easy block tutorial shows exactly how I made the lovely mini. I made four of these blocks, and you'll see when you stitch these blocks together, they create a gorgeous, interlocked look.

Flying Geese Quilt Block Tutorial - Two Methods

Just as there are several different ways to make half-square triangles, there's several ways to do flying geese. I'll show you the two methods I use most often, and you can decide how you'd like to make yours for your quilt.

This is the Right Turn Bag and you can find the FREE pattern right HERE. This is a pattern she developed for Janome and it's a pretty easy bag (pretty and easy for the win ;-).

Giant Granny Square Quilt Block Tutorial

The block above used 4" squares for all the patterned blocks and 4"x4.5" blocks for the white blocks. I looked at several other tutorials for Granny Square Quilt Blocks and the consensus seems to be that adding the length on the outside blocks ensures you have enough to trim a true 1/4" seam allowance around the edges. Seemed a bit strange but I did have a generous amount to square up with so I like it.

I finished up my March blocks and I'll be honest, it was WAY more of a struggle than it should have been. We were asked to make 12" Sawtooth Star blocks - easy right?
I would have said yes before I decided to use the no waste method of making the flying geese blocks, which I had used before and loved but this time made me want to cry.

It was one of those simple projects that I thought turned out looking like a million bucks and the panel is what makes it. You could also cut a center square from any fabric that you want to feature!

These fish are too cute not to share! The original pattern can be found here on etsy but I wanted to share some modifications and tips to make them a little easier.

English Paper Piecing (EPP) is one of the oldest piecing techniques and simply means using paper as temporary backing in order to get precise seams. You can create any number of shapes with this technique, but there's a reason that the humble hexagon is so popular - hexagons fit together in a number of pleasing combinations and the corners make for easy basting. The small size of the hexagons can put a surprisingly rapid dent in your scrap pile.

I love Easter eggs. There's something delightful about the elevation of such an ordinary, every day object into colour and pattern and life: it's spring and rebirth and all the good things we've been longing for through the long, white winter. This year, in addition to dying real eggs, I wanted to make something a little more permanent and a little more playful. It was a perfect time to dig into my quilting scraps.

I love the Square-in-a-Square block for its simplicity, but it’s also terrific for learning to handle bias edges, and practicing great points. It’s also one of my favorites for using novelty or feature fabrics in the centers.

So, I ran into a little problem. It turns out that, when making a tutorial, I'm not so great at remembering to take pictures! I guess this is really more like a cross between a process and a tutorial. Hopefully it's somewhat helpful.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to leave summer in my rear view mirror just yet. Luckily, now that I have this bag with its pop of color ruffle, blue and white stripe and classic brown leather – I’ve got the perfect accessory to transition into Fall without leaving the color of summer behind.

This block has been called many things over the years, dating as far back as 1907, from a Friendship block to a Hearth and Home block, but I think Star Crossed might be a better name for it, so that's what I'm calling it.

String blocks are a great way to use up scraps, and my recent quilt finish incorporated two different kinds of string blocks that made a heart shape when put together.

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