It's in the bag

I found these two wooden beaded bag handles at the op shop last week. They were mine for the ridiculously low price of 50 cents. I went digging through my stash but didn't really find anything that grabbed my attention until I happened upon a barbecue themed novelty print in my Mum's stash (her stash totally rivals mine).





It was only a small piece, but the perfect size for the type of bag I had in mind. Luckily, Mum was generous enough to let me have it. To continue the outdoor eating theme, I decided to use some picnic style peach gingham for the lining (also from my Mum's stash). Since both fabrics were thin quilting weight cotton and were slightly see through I underlined with some white cotton.





I used a combination of this tutorial and this one, plus a bit of make-it-up-as-you-go-along. The construction was really easy until I came to attaching it to the handles. I tried the technique in the tutorials I linked to but the gathers at the top looked really messy. Mum (what would I do without her?), suggested I make a smaller machine stitched casing at the top. This worked way better.





I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. The fabric reminds me of a fifties novelty print which I love. Now all I need is warm weather and some TVP sausages and I will be set to barbecue in style.

The inside

The Mean Reds

I'm in the middle of exams at the moment so I haven't been doing that much sewing or op-shopping. I have a couple of almost finished sewing projects but they will probably have to wait until after Saturday when my last exam is.
Above are two recently acquired items in my favourite colour. The bag is vintage and was given to me by a friend of my mother's and the gloves I got for $1 at the Sallies. I've been looking for a pair of red gloves for a while after buying a pair and then promptly losing them. They are a tiny bit tight but look like they have never been worn so I'm hoping that I can stretch them a bit.