A Christmas Bag

Sometime earlier this year I took a sewing class at a shop in Bertrix Belgium called Stecker. It is a small shop with every brand of machine imaginable  They installed floor to ceiling shelves with every shelf filled with machines. If you want to test drive one, they take the machine off the shelf and place it in a center area where you can try it out. Economic times being what they are, the town has many empty shops. Across the street, the Stecker has taken over a store front where it offers classes.

So back to earlier this year. A friend and I took the trip to Belgium to take a class on making bags using something called Quiltsmart. I had never heard of this.  Basically the company Quiltsmart prints bag patterns on fusible interfacing. Your job is to iron it on to the wrong side of the bag fabric and then just sew the whole thing together following the lines. The cut-out areas are used as pockets later on. And the largest bag is reversible.

We "made" 3 bags that day. I say "made" because none of them were finished in the class.  I brought them home and there they sat collecting dust.

Being that it is Christmas season, I pulled out the Christmas bag that I had almost completed and just finished it. It took 30 minutes. The fabric came from my favorite fabric store in Strasbourg France called TOTO tissus. I bought 2 linen Christmas print fabrics several years back and when I saw what we were going to be making in the class, I could not help but choose those fabrics.

So here are some pictures.
 

Outside

Inside larger pocket

Inside smaller pocket




I love the pocket. I had to fussy cut that one to get it to work.

I have received lots of complements on this bag. I have found it to be just the right size to carry around what ever stuff I need to or to carry those items I have bought at the various Christmas markets one finds here in Europe this time of year.

 

So, on the  hunt to complete my next project...