I found this bag at the Goodwill. I immediately picked it up, because I loved it, but it was funny because I couldn’t figure out why I thought it was so great. I have no other explanation for why I like this bag, except that it makes my heart happy and it makes me smile. I love it!

Here is a close up of that wonderful texture and patterned fabric. It was in absolutely pristine condition until my son insisted on carrying it to the car for me on the wet and soggy day that we happened to be out. I am not sure how many cars he rubbed the dirt off of with it, but it still looks good. I plan to use it and get it dirty anyway!

I got it home and explained to the man that I wasn’t exactly sure why I liked it so much. He took one look at it and said, “Because it’s funky!” Oh, yeah. Man what would I do without him to explain myself to me!

We have needed a new toiletries bag for a while now. I keep using a giant ziploc bag since I had not gotten around to making one yet. But this bag inspired me and so I made this:

It was the first time I used iron on vinyl (which I lined the inside with)… I am not sure I even knew it existed until I found it on clearance for 70% off. But I think I will use some when I start making more lunch bags. I cut the applique out of another sweet corduroy fabric that I am dying to use for something. Oh, if I the world would just stop so I could tinker in the studio.

I also lined it with this calico that my mom passed on to me from my great aunt. She gave me a whole stack of solids (which is what is missing from my stash) and this print. It went perfectly with the thrifted orange velour and leftover binding that I used.

So, this toiletries bag will work for us, but it could use a little tweaking before I could make a pattern that would be useful to anyone else. The zipper is too small… that is what I get for using a thrifted zipper instead of choosing one that was appropriate for this project. I also ended up having to rip out a lot of seams, since I tried to put on the binding the easy way, and it didn’t work! So a lot of seam ripping and hand sewing later, I am all ready to go with no place to go, and truth be told no inclination to go anywhere at the moment anyway! So it will be here waiting until the time is right.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Life, Sewing, Accessories, Thrift. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, bookmark the Permalink in your Browser, leave a response, or trackback from your own site.