Fabrics & the Pink Paisley Rag'd Bag

Remember the Rag'd Purse from yesterday? Well I had to have one of my own, but finding my fabrics was a longer process. The bag from yesterday had 4 fabrics all from a coordinating collection at Hobby Lobby, and then ONE fabric from a local store - YES the Peacock feathers and the bold floral squares are both cut from the same piece of fabric!!! Those two squares added the splash I was looking for, but my bag didn't come together as easily.

These are the five fabrics used in my Pink Paisley Rag'd Bag


I started with the Pink Medallions on the left end, and the Pink w/ Black Paisleys on the right end. One day in Hobby Lobby those two fabrics just drew me in and I HAD to have them. But they lacked something to tie them together. There was a bit of black in the Pink Medallion fabric, but not enough to make them truly "go" for my taste. So on a trip to JoAnn's with fabrics in tow, I found the Black & Green Geometric Fabric. It had a great little accent of HOT PINK, and tied my fabrics together. I still wasn't done. The tote that inspired my purse was made from a white solid cotten and one pattern! No way that was going to fly for my wild purse. But I found NOTHING else at JoAnn's.

A couple of days later my MIL told me she saw more at Hobby Lobby she thought coordinated, and I was in luck, they had put out more fabrics! There were probably 6 or 7 more fabrics that coordinated with the Pink Medallion, and that many more that coordinated with the Pink w/ Black Paisleys. I picked up bolt after bolt and laid them beside one another with my little quarter yards I had already bought. Finally picking two more fabrics from the Pink Medallion Line - a diaganol stripe and the White Medallion & Paisley. The White Medallion and Paisley is what tied it all together for me in the end. It had just enough black in it to make them all work. The diagonal stripe was really just for fill. :o)

And here it is my PINK PAISLEY RAG'D BAG!!!
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It is the same dimensions as the bag from yesterday, but I am using mine as a purse. So I would only change one THING! I would make it WIDER! LOL! And I did add an inner pocket to my bag to clip my cell phone to. I might even make a taller bag next time I do this for myself to make an even LARGER interior pocket.

So even if you think you can never put that many patterns together, TRY IT! If you walk into a store and find a piece of fabric or paper for that matter that really catches your eye - BUY IT! Carry it around with you until you find things to go with it, and you will be SURPRISED at what you find, if you are just willing to go outside the box!!!

Stay tuned, my mom has commissioned me to make one of these purses for HER VERY OWN, and I already purchased the fabrics and they are TOTALLY different than either of these first two bags!!! YOU WILL LOVE IT MOM!!!

Rag'd Purse

I NEVER buy magazines, I mean NEVER. There are too many cool things out there on the internet for FREE inspiration. But a friend of mine, Lynn, had some things published in Crafts N' Things so I picked up a copy with my trusty 40% coupon at Hobby Lobby. As I was browsing through I saw the CUTEST little summer tote, and it was rag'd. See the picture to the left for a sneak peek, and to begin an understanding of what a rag'd purse is.

They had combined stamping and other things into this tote, but I thought how fun would it be to just get some cool fabrics and make it into a shoulder bag/purse!

This is the purse after it was all sewn together, basically you sew it with the seams facing out toward you. Here is a close up of what those seams look like before the rag'ing begins.

You need a good pair of micro-tipped scissors. I find the Fiskars Micro Tip spring action scissors to be the best. And I found a great deal at JoAnn's - buy one pair get one free in the same package, and used a 50% off coupon on them!!! Super deal! You simply snip every 1/4" or so on all those seams.




After all the seams have been snipped, you run it through a short wash cycle with no detergent (just to get it wet), and then dry the purse. And this is what the seams will look like then!



Finally a picture of the entire bag completely done!!!








This particular tote I made for my best friend for her birthday. She uses it to carry her bible, ipod and book to work with her every day. It is about 18" long x 10" high and about 4" deep.

Tomorrow I will show you the purse I made for myself, and I will talk a little more about picking coordinating fabrics.

Paisley, Cream background Floral, Stripe & Dots are all from Hobby Lobby.
Peacock Feathers & Bold Floral are from a local store here called Carousel Crafts.

Keith's Quilt

This is the quilt I made Keith for Christmas. This is made of special pieces of clothing from his life.


The blue outfit (top left) is the outfit he came home from the hospital in; the boo-boo shirt was one his mom made and added the iron on to it as well, a baseball shirt from Chili's, a bowling towl from when he was a kid, bowling shirt with patches, baseball shirts from his childhood, and a Saturday Scholars Shirt from his elementary school days!


Dairy Queen baseball shirt, with bowling patches I sewed on (they were some that his mom never attached to his shirt), a sock monkey applique made of REAL SOCKS (Pam did this one for me), close up of his coming home outfit and boo-boo shirt.


A pocket off his work pants; a collage of baby jammies that he wore then dressed his bear in when he was little.


Jammies, Dairy Queen Jersey, and Back of his bowling shirt.


Top left is his baby blanket complete with tags he loved (still loves) so much, two of his baseball jersies, jammies, and a budweiser shirt from when we started dating.


He love this quilt and it is probably the best gift I have ever given him; how on EARTH am I gonna top this next year???