January 28, 2012

I love bags of all kinds.  I am forever searching out patterns to make them.  Here is a Schlep bag that is fun to make, as well as use.  In this picture there are four bags.  The two large ones on each end are full of "treasures", which my family calls trash or junk.  Here is the website where I found the free pattern.
http://sentimentalstitches.net/free-stuff/schlep-bag/   Take time to look around Gayle's site, she has some beautiful antique quilt patterns there.

For these bags, I used denim fabric for the bottoms.  Cotton doesn't wear well and since the bottom of the bags are what gets the most abuse, I wanted a fabric that could take it.  I like all my bags to be quilted. Some of the squares on these bags are of pre-quilted fabrics, and some I quilted myself.  I also padded the handles  with batting.  The next time I make this pattern, I will put something in the handles that will give them a bit of stiffness, for I find that the handles curl instead of staying flat when used.  Of course all  my bags are lined.  I like all my projects to have that "finished" look.

The size of this bag is controlled by the size of the square you start with.  I have seen some of these bags made with pieced blocks instead of the plain squares. These bags are open at the top and sometimes I don't like the bag to be opened to where I can lose items.  I am kind of toying around with the idea of adding a piece of additional fabric to the top of the bag with a draw string so I can close the top.

I have plans on making more of these for I seem to never have enough bags.  But then, if I would finish my projects instead of starting more, I would already have more than enough bags, but what fun is that?