Tuesday, May 3, 2011

What's in my bag

I consider myself to be a resonably eco-friendly gal. I'm a dedicated recycler, I don't leave my engine running idly if I'm not in the car, I do my best not to litter, and I have many, MANY re-usable shopping bags (like, tons of them). I love them, and use them religiously for my weekly grocery run. "Do you have your bags?" asks the pissy judgmental hussy of a check-out girl? Hah! I smirk. Not ONLY do I have SEVERAL of them, they have their own dedicated peg in the foyer and everything. How do you like dem apples?

The trouble with the dedicated peg in the foyer is that it's in the foyer - aka in the house - and not readily available to me when I'm out running spur-of-the-moment errands (I wish I could call them "Dash-to-buy-crusty-bread-and-Chablis" errands, but more often than not they're "Crap-I-forgot-to-buy-cat-litter-and-toothpaste-sh*t-sh*t-sh*t!!!" kind of errands...).

Now, before you tell me to just keep some in the car, stop right there. I've tried that. It works great for precisely ONE errand. I get to the store, grab my bag, awesome. The trouble is that when I get home, I unpack my litter and toothpaste and put the bag back on the dedicated peg, because that's where shopping bags GO. Does anyone go BACK to their car just to put a shopping bag away?? No. Of course not. That way lies madness.

Enter my latest sewing project: a pretty, foldable shopping bag that I can keep IN MY PURSE at all times. Brilliant stuff.



Pattern: Eco-Friendly Shopping Bag
Exterior: Echino (by Etsuko Furuya) Perch Turquoise (Fall 2010)
Lining: MoMo It's a Hoot Dots Marshmallow
Pouch: Echino (by Etsuko Furuya) Basic Dots Cerise Creamds
(all purchased at Pink Chalk Fabrics)
Button: vintage, from my grandmother's bin o' buttons
Mods: Ultimately made the pouch larger to make folding the bag easier



I really enjoyed making this bag, even though I ultimately wound up modifying it a wee bit, once on purpose and once by accident.

The first incarnation (seen in the orange picture above) had a much smaller pouch, which made folding up the bag a right beatch, and didn't even do it well at that. I would have left it alone and just lived with it, but the goal for this bag is for me to be able to carry it in my purse, and real estate in said accessory is both rare and extremely valuable (call me Ally Sheedy because Yes, I always have *this much* sh*t in my bag). Twenty minutes with a seam ripper later, and I was back in business.


As to the second modification, I only just realized I made it. Seems I sewed the handles wrong - they should connect front to front instead of front to back. Fixing that mistake implies ripping out a fair whack of topstitching and other fussiness and guess what? I'm SO not going to do it. I wanted a shopping bag, I've got one. Yay me.


Happy Sewing, Everyone!

10 comments:

Audrey said...

Gerat bag and great idea. And thanks to you, now I want to see Breakfast Club again! ;-)

Alrischa said...

Love the fabric, too. One day I'm going to get out my sewing machine and... see if I can turn it on. Hmm.

All the talk of mistakes makes the blog interesting, but you could totally skip it, because who would know; it looks perfect ;)

Mrhide said...

it's great :) ... and contrary to knitting socks, you just have to make ONE to have a finished object!

Caroline said...

Love the bag!

My mom keeps bags in the car and when she brings them home, she hangs them on the doorknob so that she doesn't forget to put them back in the car when she goes out again.

Maryse said...

Such a nice project! I also put my bags next to the door so that I don't forget to put them back in my trunk!

Cynthia F said...

VERY cute and great job!! Love the fabrics you chose too!

Knit and Purl Mama said...

Great bag! Love the modification(s) too. Does it fit nicely in your bag? (It's okay, you're not the only one who has that much Sh!t in your bag)!

Knit and Purl Mama said...

Love Caroline's message about her mom putting them by the door to bring them back out again on the next time out the door. I've tried that. Works the first couple of times... but then not again after! LOL

Dawn said...

Love the bag...I totally need one of those!

Sinéad said...

I LOVE the bag! Over here, you have to pay an environmental tax of 22c per plastic bag in the supermarket, so we've been using re-usable bags for years. I actually use plastic crates that fold flat & keep them in the boot of the car. But this. This is so much higher on the pretty scale.