Channeling My Inner Sarah Jessica Parker
After finishing the quilting of my wonky log cabin, I needed a smaller project as a break. I have a lot of travel coming up this summer (1 wedding down, 5 more to go!), plus a trip to Quilt Market this week (hooray!), so I decided to make a new cosmetic bag.
I am pretty much an au natural girl...which I could blame on lack of time to get all prettied up because of the two small children in my house. However, I didn't wear much makeup before then either, so I guess it's just the way I am. I have a small bag from Target for my makeup, but I don't really like it because it doesn't stand upright and it's too small. Since I have all these events this spring and summer, I decided it was time for a new bag. Add in some samples of laminated cotton that I've been wanting to try out, and the time was right.
For my first attempt, I used the blue and white floral laminate for the outer bag and the fun green dot (regular cotton) for the lining.
I boxed the corners to create a nice wide base for it to stand up on.
The end result: Simple and fun. Bigger than my old bag, and able to stand up. Perfect.
Right?
But I couldn't stop there. It was too easy. I wanted to try something a little more involved. So I chose two laminates and made a pieced outside.
And tried something fancy to give it a little more detail at the top, so it had a flat top as well. I'm still working the kinks out of that--it didn't turn out quite right--but I like this second attempt as well. And a quick note--I googled working with laminates to find some tips. Some I used, some I didn't. But hands down the best tip was to use a walking foot. I topstitched by the seams on the pieced bag, and the walking foot made a world of difference in smooth, even fabric feeding.
Here are both bags:
And here is a peek inside at the linings. Love those dots!
At some point I'll make a third one, using everything I learned from the purple bag to make it correctly the first time rather than using trial and error. But for now, I've got two fun options that will work with all my traveling this summer. Not bad for a night's work!
I'm linking up with Quilt Story today to show these off.
I am pretty much an au natural girl...which I could blame on lack of time to get all prettied up because of the two small children in my house. However, I didn't wear much makeup before then either, so I guess it's just the way I am. I have a small bag from Target for my makeup, but I don't really like it because it doesn't stand upright and it's too small. Since I have all these events this spring and summer, I decided it was time for a new bag. Add in some samples of laminated cotton that I've been wanting to try out, and the time was right.
For my first attempt, I used the blue and white floral laminate for the outer bag and the fun green dot (regular cotton) for the lining.
I boxed the corners to create a nice wide base for it to stand up on.
The end result: Simple and fun. Bigger than my old bag, and able to stand up. Perfect.
But I couldn't stop there. It was too easy. I wanted to try something a little more involved. So I chose two laminates and made a pieced outside.
And tried something fancy to give it a little more detail at the top, so it had a flat top as well. I'm still working the kinks out of that--it didn't turn out quite right--but I like this second attempt as well. And a quick note--I googled working with laminates to find some tips. Some I used, some I didn't. But hands down the best tip was to use a walking foot. I topstitched by the seams on the pieced bag, and the walking foot made a world of difference in smooth, even fabric feeding.
Here are both bags:
And here is a peek inside at the linings. Love those dots!
I'm linking up with Quilt Story today to show these off.
