Bags and Totes and Sacs Oh My

One of our members requested some suggestions on making a simple tote bag. I thought the following links would do nicely....

Top 7 Tutorials for Making Your Own Shopping Tote

Hobo Bag from jcaroline

Market Bag Tutorial

Total Tote from Simplicity

Water Resistant Tote / Beach Bag

Pleated Tote Bag from artsy crafty babe

Free Tote Bag Patterns and Projects

Lots and Lots of bag links from Henrietta's Handbags and Purse Patterns I did notice some of the links on this site no longer work but there were so many to choose from!

If you have a favorite bag or tote pattern please share it with us!

Check this out!

Wow, this looks like so much fun! A funky Craft Studio and Sewing Lounge.....they even have monthly Crafty Cocktail happy hours – "an evening of craftacular sophistication and socializing" I must think of how to incorporate this into our sewing club calendar! Click here to see the website for Sew Crafty craft studio and sewing lounge.

Wouldn't it be the best to have something like this in Columbus in one of the storefronts downtown or maybe in a Southside cottage? My head is spinning with the possibilities.....Oh, if I were just a little bit more ambitious.

First Meeting This Saturday, July 18th 1:30

Our first Sew Southern Sewing Club meeting is this Saturday in the upstairs room at Beans and Cream from 1:30-3:30. Feel free to bring anyone you think might be interested!

• Please bring a sewing project that you’ve completed or want to complete representative of your sewing style to share with everyone.
• If you’ve completed July’s project, the sewing machine cover, bring yours….I’d love to see what everyone came up with. If you’d like to complete the machine cover but haven’t had a chance to (that would be me!) bring your machine and supplies and we’ll work on it together at the meeting.
• I’d like to start a lending library so if you have any patterns, sewing books, magazines, tutorials, etc that you would like to donate to the club please bring them.
• During the meeting Jenny Brooks will give us a little instruction on sewing patchwork blankets. Here is one of her completed projects......SO CUTESince this is a club to help everyone grow as a sewer, you may always bring any questions you have about a project you are working on. We will do our best to work through the problem area together and get you back on your sewing way.

I look forward to seeing everyone Saturday!

Turn Fabrics into "Oilcloths" Tutorial

I wanted to make a beach bag but couldn't figure out how to make it water resistant then I came across this tutorial: Turn Fabrics into "Oilcloths" on Burdastyle.com. So COOL and looks EASY!By the way, if you don't know about Burdastyle.com check it out. The website is great for project inspiration and they have lots of free patterns too.

Bare Minimum Diaper Tote

For when you don't want to carry the full on beast of a diaper bag...Bare Minimum Diaper Tote.

It holds a changing pad, baby's diapers, wipes, ointment and lip gloss for Mommy (because a girl can never be without her lip gloss:-) Click here for the Diaper Clutch tutorial that I used to make this tote. I made mine a little bigger and added a wrist strap.

July Sewing Project-Pimp My Machine

Sew Southern Sewing Club's First Sew Along Project....... Pimp my Machine aka Sewing Machine Cover

I don't have alot of storage in my home so I have to keep my sewing machine on an open shelf in my bedroom. The ugly plastic cover that houses my machine is just downright depressing to look at all day so when I came across the above photo I was literally giddy. I can't wait to pimp out my machine!

I thought this would be a fun and simple project for us to start with. If you decide to sew along with us I'd love to see your finished product so please email me photos.....I'll post them on our blog site. If you complete your cover in time to bring it to our first meeting please do so....I'd love to have a show and tell!

Following are a few links to some sewing machine cover tutorials that I thought were simple and well written. Martha Stewart Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial

Quilted Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial

Craftblog Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial

Chez Larsson Sewing Machine Cover Tutorial

Member's completed covers below.... now these make for pimpin' sewing machines.

Infant Car Seat Recovering Tutorial

This is so cool!

My infant car seat was a hand me down so, while I was very grateful for it, the pattern was not what I would have chosen. What a great idea to recover the seat! Click here to get more information on the Infant Car Seat Recovering PDF Tutorial available for purchase on Etsy.