Another Sewing Blitz

Today I made several knitting project bags for Mo using my favourite pattern. Although the pattern calls them 'Grab Bags', Skip tells me they look like Japanese knot bags commonly used for carrying lunch in Japan.

Mo had given me several fabrics to pick from.  I have streamlined the process somewhat by cutting out both lining pieces with the outer fabric at the same time. Basically, I lay one fabric on top of the other and fold it over to the correct width. It takes a lot less time that way and the fronts and backs always match perfectly. I also don't attach a pocket outlined in the pattern.

This fabric reminds me of the "Flower Power" of the 60s. 

I lined it with a leafy, green fabric and topstitched with green thread.

Then I made this one with pink and brown fabric. It reminds me of Neapolitan ice cream.

I lined it with this pink fabric.

I made another one using the same outer fabric but this time, lined it with heart fabric.

Mo also included some fat quarters with very cute kitty-cat prints - so I could make some for her daughter. The bags are about 14" wide before seaming so fat quarters aren't big enough (only 11" wide when folded). In the past, I've printed the pattern at 80% and that has worked well with fat quarters. However Mo had pre-washed the fabric and it had shrunk even more. So this time I printed the two pages of the pattern at its widest at 72% and it fit the fabric perfectly.

On the left is the full sized-bag and on the right the smaller one.

I lined the bag with the pink fabric.

Reducing the bag made it proportionately shallower, however. Since a fat quarter is 18" long, I realized I had enough to extend the depth of the bag making it more useful so I adjusted the pattern accordingly. I lined it with the leafy green fabric.

This shows the difference in depth between the two bags.

The narrower, deeper bag is almost as deep as the regular-sized one. I have all kinds of fat quarters of my own I realize I can use now for these bags that I've modified the pattern. I hope Mo likes the bags as much as I enjoyed making them.

It's funny when I knit a project, I don't really like knitting multiples of the same pattern but when I sew something, I love making multiples.