A Breezy Summer Hat

Christmas Tote Bags

Not long before I left Whyalla, the ladies from my Wednesday Sewing Group had a conclave and discussed a problem- every single one of them had a stash of Christmas prints that they'd never be using again - on account of having children and grandchildren already plastered with very same holly-and-snowman prints. (Crafters have no self-control at all around holidays.)
            Pretty soon, J's cutting table was buried beneath a 55 liter lucky-dip tub overflowing with red and green and white cotton scraps in all grades of sparkly - the glitter sort of oozing out under the lid and on the floor all around the chest and turning the carpet was twinkly gold.
             The stash was intended as a 'if-you-need-it-it-will-sparkle' group resource for holiday-ifs-and-whens, but when sewers are in the same room as free fabric they have all the restraint of magpies.  And somehow, by a natural progression, we were all making Christmas tote bags.

Lots of Christmas tote bags.

I didn't get them all finished before we left Whallya - my old Elna choked on the wool batting and before I could get it fixed we were knee-deep in packing to leave.  Last week I picked them up again. 

           

Themed bags take care of half your Christmas gift-wrapping needs in one fell swoop (add one cellophane bag of home-made cookies and you're good to go!) and using up other peoples fabric feels like virtuous thrift.
             And that's a nice feeling when I'm spending my free time hunting down vintage ecru valenciennes on etsy.
            Here's a lovely tutorial, if you've too much seasonal fabric glittering up your sewing stash. When I left Whyalla there was still half a tub of christmas cheer left. The ladies were talking about table runners... 

Summer