You can never have enough bags.....

In the past twelve months or so I have become devoted to the demise of the plastic carrier bag. Better people than I have explained the reasons for making this simple change on other blogs and websites. Suffice to say I now use recycled bags for the supermarket shop and always carry a home sewn tote bag around with me for any other shopping visits.

During the winter sales I picked up some samples in the curtain department of an old fashioned department store for just £1 each. These are lined and offer at least half to three quarters of a metre of quality fabric. I thought they would make fabulous lined tote bags. I told my friend Vickie about this and she also picked up some samples locally. Whilst my sewing skills are basic, Vickie is far more accomplished. She pointed me in the direction of Lisa Lam's website http://www.u-handbag.com/ and I picked up the free tutorial for the bucket bag. I sourced the black bamboo handles and other fittings from Lisa and the service was great.

The bag above is the second one I've now made. The fabric was stunning and my photo probably does not do it justice. I am giving it to a friend of mine called Mitzy as she has the sort of style to carry off such a dramatic pattern. She's been very supportive to me over the past few years and I thought something made by hand was a way to say 'thank you'. The bag measures 16 inches wide by 13 inches deep and is bigger than my first attempt shown below. This bag was not bad for a first attempt but I made loads of mistakes. I was determined not make them again with the black bag but the thickness of the material presented other problems which I wouldn't want to face again in a hurry. Still, these projects were a great learning curve and Vickie has now made me a fan of sewing - something my Mother, a seamstress all her life, had given up on. Can't wait to start the next one - after all I have about 15 samples left to get through and you can never have enough bags! The next bag I'm going to try was in the November 2008 issue of Sewing World magazine and involves using curtain header tape in the construction. With all these samples, curtain header is something I have in abundance so I just have to give it a go. Watch this space!