Chanteuse Designs

Fabmo Market Bag

Yeah, my first give away!! What took me so long? Ah, this is sure to become a habit! This bag turned out so lovely that there was no way I was taking it to market. Not to mention, it’s humble beginnings began at …..the infamous Fabmo! Free Designer Fabric Samples.

If you have never heard of Fabmo in Mountain View, California, you owe yourself a chance to visit this fantastic little find.  While Fabmo has been around for over 10 years, I only just discovered it over a year ago.  When my sewing began to take over my life!! (Sooo did not see that coming. But I digress.)

I am happy to share with you all today this must see spot on your travels (especially if you are creative in any small or large way).  It’s not just fabric! Head on over to their website and meet Hannah and Jonathan (founders) at www.fabmo.org and hear more of their wonderful story of how they began collecting fabrics, wallpaper, etc and where they are today in a new distribution center.  Their love of repurposing fabrics that would generally end up in landfill (I kid you not! High end, interior decorator samples of ALL sizes) could be a small documentary for the crafty at heart. Not to mention they are the kindest of folks you could ever meet!

When I was there last year I picked up this beautiful little sample of linen (see photo at right) and since the size

Fabmo Market Bag

was the “exact” size of the green bag pattern I made a few weeks back, literally what else was I to do but shave off the bottom corners and finish it off as a stunning large to medium market/travel/you name it bag. There was hardly any left to tack onto the interior pocket, but in the name of design sake I have to tack it on. Like wearing jewelry or like wearing socks, you just feel better!

As you can see I found a wonderful matching fabric for the lining and straps at Joanne’s and left off those ridiculous tabs from the previous green bag.  Also one thing that I really like to do to my handbags, is to top stitch the bottom of the bag (shown below prior to the stitching). All I do is with the seam ironed open flat,  top stitch 1/4” on seam and gives it a nice design touch. I think it helps reinforce the bottom in the event you overload your bag! Somehow I have lived this long and not taken out a shoulder, but I better not say that too loudly.

Bag Bottom

Inside

I loved how this bag turned out. Very Crisp, elegant and yet casual. A great gift and my first give away.

The lucky winner will be drawn after I have 50 comments entered. Once that happens, my associate will draw a number between 1-50!

There are two blogs, Word Press and on the website, so it won’t be so obvious who the surprise winner may be….at first! So, gals and guys stop being so shy. Win this beautiful bag with compliments from Fabmo, Hannah, Jonathan and myself!! What a team. A perfect gift, beach bag, market bag or just plain pretty bag.

And don’t forget to recycle whenever, wherever, however, whatever  you can. You will amaze yourself at how much lighter your footprint can be. The planet will be ever so thankful.

Cheers!

This is my first give away, so I kindly ask you all to be patient while I work out any potential glitches in the process and make sure that everyone gets a response.

Back of Bag

New Green Bag

I had wanted to finish this bag with the grocery bag in my blog a few weeks ago, but was only able to get around to it now. It was a much easier bag and I love that the straps go completely underneath the bag and hug the bag for greater durability and strength.

But there is this nagging annoyance from the side straps? See those that slide onto the grocery rack? They look like dog ears……..and quite frankly not sure you’re going to want to waste the time getting the check out clerk to slide them on.

What were they thinking? Hmmmm. As many times as I have dragged my bags into the local Safeway, WholeFoods, or Albertsons, no one has the time to “hook up” the tabs for your incoming purchases. At least that is my impression when zipping through the check out lines. I hand them my bag and they start to stuff instantly. So, the side bar handles …….for me………seemed superfluous. The tabs took away from the design. However a new bigger BAG design was discovered. Before I put those tabs on, I fell in love with the larger size from my previous Hand Bags. Same kind of bag, but airy, big, roomy bottom design. Purrrrrrrrfect!

I will definitely be making more of these, but disregarding the side tabs. This bag I lined in nylon (of course) and though I have yet to cut out my plastic square bottom insert for structure, this bag is probably a 3-4 hour project. Boy did the time fly. Being my first try at this design I forgot to clock it. But I imagine you can sew this bag in a few hours once you have it cut out and skip a few of the steps. Yes, this is a simple design but I ALWAYS go the tortoise route whenever I sew anything new. You’d think I would get over it but fabric doesn’t forgive well!  So you speed demons will whip this up in no time.

You will need 1 1/4 yards of 45” wide, or 5/8 yards of 60” wide fabric. Cottons, home dec or denims are my favorite, but if you can get heavy hemp fabric you are going to truly fall in love with this bag. And it will be a long lasting relationship too! Good hemp is stunning.

Hair Canvas

Also, I interfaced this bag and love the extra weight it gave my home dec fabric. The pattern calls for hair canvas (shown right) but I had a medium weight interfacing which combined with the canvas was good enough for my sample. I love crisp designs.

Hair Canvas

My recommendations: I would make the straps wider.  My previous designs and from many of my gracious customers, that is one of the many bonus features of my bags. Our shoulders will thank us for that.  So does my chiropractor Matthew!

Happy Sewing.

Wide Straps

I found in my stash a song sung by Tracy Thorn (Everything but the Girl) from the “Protection” album by Massive Attack. It freakishly jumped out at me, and I don’t even know how I got it in my collection. (Well I sorta do but my lips are sealed.) I think I watched “Blind Side” too much!

Nice song for a gray, rainy, sewing day.

Grocery Bag Pattern

Not often do I write, …..actually I don’t think I ever have, about literally constructing my designs. (Cart before the horse huh?)  Any-who plastic bag use is Still rampant here (with no seen on the horizon for it ending soon), but found yet another “hopeful” solution. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean any other state or country is winning the record for Plastic Bag Elimination. Wish there were a prize winning contest. That might get people changing.

Grocery Bag Pattern

Grocery Bag Pattern

I came across this Butterick pattern (#5338 at your local Joanne’s Fabric, but you can get it at any existing fabric store — they’re dropping like flies)- that sells them or online.  It was kind of a pamper day as I rarely shop, and actually will do anything to get out of it. Unless of course it is fabric. But I digress. I thought this might be a nice addition to my market bag line and decided to finish a sample one last night. As you can see, I finished it. There is no great love relationship going on with this one, however if it made people change their habits I would be jumping up to the moon. Trying anyhow and would certainly put more into production.

So, I could either make these little ditty grocery bags which took me about …….oh let’s say …..two something hours to put together.  I go very, very, very slow when I have not made an item before….not including cutting this one out.  Then once I get the gist of it can totally go for speed.  Though we still aren’t and never will be the road runner here, it’s the mitered corners in the binding that took me awhile.  A few choice words later.

The folded Binding and I don’t have a very long relationship,  so if you have used it regularly and can get the angle “Perfect” you should have no problem whipping this together in two hours, including cutting it out.

Patrcia, my favorite Test Marketer

The inside seams are french enclosed and I just sergered the bottom but you could have used the binding on it. I didn’t want the extra bulk or weight so I opted out. Less is more rule.

As you can see I wasn’t sure about the bag and didn’t bother matching up the pattern in the fabric, but it gave me the idea for the bag completed. I made this from some of my scraps. Hmmm, should this be a bag or should the scrap be put into the stuffing for my auctioned off dog beds?

  You decide.  Let me know what you think.  If it changes the world, one bag at a time, then you know where my vote goes.

Au revoir!!

www.chanteusedesigns.com