boxed

I already have one of Di's amazing box bags. Trust me, this lady can sew, looks like she has a couple of her box bags at discounted prices over at her etsy store, extremely cheap price for the amount of detail and excellent workwomanship put into these. She might refer to me as Nicole "Martha" Palooza, but she gives me a run for my money when it comes to sewing.

I needed a bag to carry my sock knitting in, something that wasn't plastic and a little more stylish. I have this Japanese craft book, ISBN 483472235x, and used it as a guide together with the bag I already have from Di. Overall I'm happy with the end result. The circle ruching on the bum of the bag hides a little zip messiness. Zips aren't my strength, however I'm happy with this zip. It also gave me an excuse to try out circle ruching from a recently purchase quilting guide, "The A-Z of Quilting", ISBN 0975685414. I'd bought it mainly because of the circle ruching and grid ruching. It's an excellent book full of technique and tutorials with lots of how-to pictures. The outer fabric is from Amy Butler's Sun Bloom range. Because I was making a shorter length bag I wanted to use an upholstery weight fabric on the outside for rigidity and this fabric is perfect. The outer is embroidered using the fabric print as a guide. On the inner I've used some fabric that Katy sent me as part of my backtack II package. I think it's vintage. There's also a little felt patch sewn into the lining for needles and pins.

More pictures of the box bag over in my flickr gallery.

Circle rouching - a whole quilt top using this technique?? Too much?

Grid rouching - imagine a skirt or bag using this technique.