Sewing: Drawstring Goody Bag {Tutorial & Pattern}

I made this patchwork goody bag over the weekend after being inspired by the flag my daughter brought back from her school!!! Happy Birthday, Malaysia!!! 53rd Anniversary since Malaysia commemorating the independence of the Federation of Malaya from British colonial rule, celebrated on today August 31. Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!!!! I love you… but, do you love us??? I believe a lot of Malaysians would like to know the answer.

I used 4 colors for the border which are also the colors of the Malaysian flag, red, yellow, blue and white. The center piece is an applique of a hibiscus, our national flower. You can make this for your own ….

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Crochet: Straw Beach Bag {Tutorial & Pattern}

This is a crochet straw beach bag (drawstring type) I designed and made with rafia yarn recently. The rafia yarn is thin and flat like plastic strips, softer than rafia twine. It is easy to crochet and the result is surprisingly soft and gentle to touch.

This shoulder bag is made by a double layer crochet technique. The 1st layer is single crochet (back loops only) from bottom to top, then you work upside down for the second layer, just slip stitch on the front loops for each and every stitch. As simple as that!

Remember to crochet 12 holes for the eyelets. Used a long fat white elastic band ( I bought it from hair accessories shop) and sew a fabric to the ends as the ribbon ties. The elastic drawstring closure is superbly convenient, now you don’t have to pull-to-tie and untie-to-release the bag when taking things in and out. Didn’t summer supposed to be easy and relax?

Get the crochet pattern and some how-to photos after the jump. ….

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Sewing: TriFold Floral Wallet {Tutorial & Pattern}

This is the trifold wallet I made by using the embroidery with flower applique couching on it. You can get the pattern and tutorial on the embroidery work here.

Design and sew this wallet only took me a night to complete (with the embroidery face ready), but begin a novice in Illustrator, drafting and finalizing the pattern took me days. It was fun playing around with Illustrator that sometimes I discovered and tried on other tools and got distracted from drawing the pattern. Finding possibilities to create and develop is my hobby and passion, that’s why I love creative handmade so much By the way, you can get the free 5 pages of printable pdf pattern for this trifold floral wallet here. Be sure to set your printer paper setting to letter (8.5″ x 11″) and don’t scale it otherwise the dimension won’t be right. There are dimension in the pattern, so you can check with a ruler if you are not sure.

Tips on cutting and ironing fusible interfacing
One thing I would like to point out in this tutorial and also for many other purse and handbag sewings, ….

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Bag Tutorial: Shaggy Bag With Lining

 

My latest creation….. the handbag which I have been talking over the previous 2 posts, where I showed how to make the zipper pocket and 6-compartment slip pocket. This is is the bag that has them in it.

Remember the loop stitch crochet video, I made this bag out of this stitch. The material I used is poly jersey interlock, exactly the same material I used for the locker hook projects. This material is smooth and has some elastic property so it is easy to crochet. The lustrous finishing makes the bag ….

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Sewing Tutorial: 6 Compartments Slip Pocket

This slip pocket is the second internal pocket (after the zipper pocket) I have made for a bag.

I always don’t feel satisfy with the slip pocket came in most bags, they don’t have enough compartments for me to put my small belongings in an organized way. So I made this, a 6 compartments slip pockets.

The front are slim pockets (credit card size) for you to put cards, eg. door excess card, toll card, parking card separately and don’t have to mess them up in a big pocket and need to throw everything out before you can find them.

The back pockets are deep and spacious compartments which can hold thicker item like a compact cosmetic pack, small mirror, slim mobile phone,etc….

The slender center pockets are suitable for keeping small items like thumb drive, pen, key, lip stick etc….

Finished size of this pocket is 8″ x 2 3/4″.

Let’s see how to this 6 compartments slip pockets for a bag ….

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Sewing Tutorial: Internal Zipper Pocket For Bag

I made a bag recently…. before I let you see the bag [update: it is here], I wish to show you how I sewed the pockets inside, both zipper pocket and 2-tier slip pocket with 6 compartments (coming soon, updated).

Want a zipper pocket to show only the zipper and not the outline of the pocket’s seams? This is the tutorial you are looking for. A zipper pocket without a side sewn line gives a classy touch for a fine bag.

Pocket lining: 8″ x 12″ (including seam allowance of 1/2″), to make a 7″ x 5″ internal zipper pocket for bag.

The zipper opening at the pocket is 7″, if you don’t have the exact zipper size, you can always use a ….

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