Sunday 19 December 2010

Meet the Cabbage bag

I woke up this morning with an idea for a shopper or grocery/market bag. Normally I would go running on a Sunday morning but we actually had about 12 cm of propper snow here in Kew yesterday. In my 12 years in London I have never seen that much snow here. And as I can't and won't run in snow I'll sew instead (shame that it doesn't burn the same amount of calories...............)

I modelled the style on the "Easy Everyday Bag" by Louse Papas that was featured in the latest Fat Quarterly Edition but made it overall a little bigger and gave it my personal touch. When I saw the bag in the on-line magazine a while ago I immediately thought that this was a great size to take to the weekly farmers market. But I forgot about it again until yesterday when I went through my stash and paused over one of my favourite Kaffe Fassett fabrics; the "Cabbage Patch" in Green . I absolutely adore this fabric simply because nobody has ever made a green cabbage look so good. I used a medium weight interfacing on the cabbage fabric to strengthen it so it can withhold a bit of weight. It also ensures that the bag keeps its form better. The middle part of the bag is a wonderful strong linen  on which I appliquéd the word "Greens"  (as in Greens for Vegetable)





The lining was made from an Alexander Henry print "Florentine Gardens" in bright turquoise and I added a little inside pouch for house keys or a small purse. I find nothing more annoying than having to empty my full grocery bag on my front door step because my house keys are ones again hiding at the bottom somewhere under the potatoes. Am I the only one who suffers from that ?






The handles are made from leather that I bought pre-cut at my local quilt shop. I punched in holes with an ice pick and then secured them to the bag with strong cotton as described in the magazine.  I really love the bag. It it so fresh and vibrant and really gives me an uplifting feeling in this dreary weather. Now I am thinking to make one in red and blue and yellow.........I would love to hear what think about it.

4 comments:

  1. What an excellent idea, very practical as well, how much will they retail for? Farah

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  2. I think your cabbage bag is fab :-) Love the applique 'Greens' idea.
    I love bags, I really want to make a bag for myself....but at the mo am in the midst of the 'technicolour yawn' quilt-along & in my wisdom (ha!) decided to free-motion quilt the whole thing......yep, complete & utter newbie quilter madness lol!
    So, it might be awhile before I am able to make myself a nice bag, like yours :-)

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  3. awesome bag...i need some leather handles too. Thanks!

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Thank you for your comments! I love reading them and will answer every question you have on my projects. But I have a very busy daytime job and am therefore not able to thank each and every comment. Please don't be offended if I won't reply.