‘Bottoms Up’ and Ingenious Lazy Girls

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Lazies, I had a fabulous update on a few things ‘Lazy’ from Wheat Carr of Wandering Wolf.  Wheat, who in her own words, represents ‘All Things String’, recently hosted a booth at the ‘Stitches’ yarn event.

From Wheat:

“I spent the last 4 days at an event called “Stitches” a yarn event which average 5,000 visitors. There should be a few new Lazy Girls joining (the Lazy Girl Forum) and I got to see a number of great versions of Gracie & Towne Purse.

Joan, you may be hearing from some Yarn Shop owners, more than once this weekend people were dumping the wonderful felted purses contents into a basket so they could “install” a Bag-E-Bottom.

I found many who shared my idea of using Lazy Girl Patterns to make the “inside” for their purse, so they could have all the great pockets – Among the ideas we shared, was my suggestion that for this type of “liner” they could use some of the “prequilted” fabrics as the base and then just add the pockets. Joan, I mentioned that you had just posted a “how-To” to make a BEB Pocket and suggested they join the group and read your instruction.

Now about that Needle Felting stuff. If you accept the daffy-nition of Drip Under Pressure, then some might say I am a bit of an Ex-Spurt.  I’ve had an addiction to Needle felting for about 20 years and so am very excited that Clover’s new needle felting hand tools and that several of the sewing machine companies have created either attachments or dedicated purpose machines for needle felting. Joan I don’t know if you noticed the 3D Needle Felted Animals in the Clover booth while you were at Quilt Market in Houston recently? They were created by a wonderful designer named Linda Winter. Her patterns and kits will be available again next week (we sold out over the weekend) and we are adding three more designers in December and January (as fast as I can get the pattern instructions edited – they will start to be available) Most will debut at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in February.”

Thanks for that fabulous update Wheat!  I would have enjoyed the purse-dumping event, indeed. Next time, I want pictures! I love the idea of using the lining/pocket instructions from some of our bags to make inserts for non-pocketed bags, such as felted bags. I am definately going to have to try that. I did get a chance to play with Clover’s hand needle felting tools and they are wonderful.

I think the lining/pocket of the Gracie Handbag pattern would be perfect for this. So would the Whimsy Bag (made with pockets on the lining) for that matter. But my first choice is Gracie and here’s why. The lining of the Gracie Handbag, with the pocket panel attached would be ideal for a liner. The pockets do not extend to the side seams, therfore, you have some wiggle room as far as how wide to make what we’ll call the ‘insert’. The inside pocket panel includes a ‘sleeve’ or pocket at the bottom for a Bag-E-Bottom – that is perfect! I would start with the dimensions of the lining and pocket panel as is. You’ll want to finish the edges somehow, so you may want two layers of lining fabrics, sewn right sides together leaving an opening to turn, then turn right sides out.

Consider a stiffener such as interfacing behind the lining. I think all of that would be a good start for a medium sized bag. The rest of the details would need to be decided for your particular bag. Wheat mentioned pre-quilted fabric and I think that would hold-up nicely. Perhpas serge or zig zag the edges.

Enjoy!

Joan

Image courtesy of Sew News