Emery's Baby Bag

I had a particularly happy phone call from a friend back in November. She and her family were moving to our town! Woohoo! 

She has a son about 9 months older than James and had a little girl in August. I usually give myself 6 months to a year to finish these special baby gifts, but since she was moving to town, I wanted to hurry and finish it for when she first visited our house - so, a baby bag finished by the time little Emery was 4 months old! (Gotta love a great reason to have a deadline!)

A big thanks to my Mom for sewing the name (as always), and for sharing her machine - hers sews through the thickness of the denim, corduroy and interfacing much better than mine. Most of the fabric came from fat quarters won from giveaways, but some of it was purchased. I loved using the more feminine decorated demin on the back which was a remnant from JoAnns, I believe. 

So, welcome back to SoDak friend!!! I'm so excited to see our kids become friends :) 

The Bags Keep Coming! {ALYOF}

This bag needed to get done before the first Thursday of the month... and I did it! The sweet little recipient and her mother traveled up for lunch. Two other friends joined us as well... just a little college teammate get-together :) Friends forever!!

Except for the side fabric, the rest of the cottons were all giveaways. Such a great way to use up those fat quarters when I don't have time (or the need) for any more quilts.

I had some trouble with my machine not liking the thickness of the straps, but we powered through. The Brother machine has served my mom and I well since I was in high school (my ten year reunion is next summer!), but it may be time to upgrade. Mom recently purchased a new Viking machine, which I am currently testing to see if I like... she is starting school soon, so she won't be needing it for a few weeks. I have plans of making another baby bag, quilting a lap quilt and working on a knit outfit on the Viking to make sure the machine works well for all of my sewing interests. Oh, and I also need to test the buttonholes! Good thing we are done with most of our summer traveling and that James is past his colic-y stage ;)

 Just a few shots of the back, straps and inside. Only one more of these bags to go (for my newest nephew)! Well, until this winter when another teammate is due with her second :) Babies, Babies, Babies!

ALYOF Info...
Goal Post Here
#29 in the Goal Linky Party

Burke's Bag Done {July Goal Complete}

I can't believe I finished this month's goal! It's been a busy month, so I barely finished this in time... but I knew I needed to finish this by Saturday. The recipient, who lives in the PNW, will be here and I wanted it done before she arrived (aka... I wanted to save on shipping cost, ha!).

Again, Mom did the name appliqué for me... she also provided the red corduroy for part of the lining - I already had the green on hand. 

The cotton fabrics all came from giveaways :) Actually, the novelty pieces came from the very first giveaway I ever won three years ago. I love being able to use up a few fat quarters on these bags!

I'm down to only needing to sew three more bags to make! Then, I can focus on a few more fun items... like clothes for E!!

Goal Post Here
#3 in the Goal Setting Linky Party

Cutting it Close {April Goals Reached}

I made it! I was getting nervous, but I finished them a the last moment :) 

My goal was to finish two of these "Monikered Baby Bags," but I actually finished three of them! 

No tutorial yet, but maybe once my list of need-to-sew quiets down, I'll take the time to take pictures along the way. Don't worry, I have plenty of friends having babies in the near future, so you know I'll have plenty of chances to finally write down the guidelines for this fun, personalized bag!

Linking up to ALYOF

April Goal Setting Post

(Link 4 in the goals linky party)

This bag actually isn't for a baby. The recipient was recently upgraded to big brother (his sister's bag is below), and I didn't make him a bag when he was born... it was time that he received one! It should be a great church activity bag for the almost-3-year-old. I hope he enjoys this bag that is all his own!

 Most of this fabric was from a Fabricworm giveaway win a few years ago (I can't remember the name, but I believe they recently reprinted it). I was happy to have a good use for it finally! The rest of the fat quarters have been finally cut up into charms. They have been great additions to my I-spy quilts :)

 

This little man was born earlier this year (remember his quilt that I made and blogged about here?). His mom was a teammate of mine in college, so I chose to use good ol' blue and yellow (go Jackrabbits!).

 

These fabrics were all from my mom's baby bag fabric stash. 

I'll finally get to meet the little fellow at the end of May, so I'll give this gift to him then.

 

 Here is the first girl's bag that I've made by myself and blogged about. The only change from a boy's bag is that the band around the name panel is a ruffle instead of just a simple fold. Some of this fabric is from an older Lizzy House fabric line. I chose brown accent fabrics from my stash that were probably from the JoAnn remnant bin :)

 I'll get hers and her brother's bags in the mail soon. 

She was born in March, so it's about time I get a gift to them!

 

In non-sewing news... the boys started planting! They were able to plant all last week, and they're almost done with corn. 

I'll be excited with the green plants start popping up. The brown fields just aren't very pretty ;)

Grady's One Year Bag

You had a glimpse in this post of one of my mom's common baby gifts... the Monikered Baby Bag. Evelyn attended her first birthday party of a friend last month, and I decided to make him a bag! His mother is expecting another little one this summer and I look forward to making that baby one as well!

These bags are perfect for carrying toys and books... they can even double as a diaper bag. Evelyn's cousins in California use them for church activity bags - each boy has his own bag, which makes for less fighting :) We use Evelyn's for her toy bag when we travel back and forth to the grandparents' house.

Mom used to make these in only one color of corduroy (I still have mine somewhere in my old bedroom). Now, the corduroy is only used as the lining, while we use interfaced cottons and old blue jeans on the outside. This was my first time making one myself (well, Mom helped with the letters and the denim pockets), and I have a few more in my to-sew pile. Maybe one of these days I'll write a "tutorial," although, these are very adaptable - they have to be with all the different lengths of names out there - so the tutorial would be more like guidelines than actual rules ;)


Linking up to Ellison Lane's Crafty Traveler Linky Party