Thursday, May 26, 2011

Snap Bag Success and an EPIC FAIL!


Our family gathered at our home this past weekend to celebrate three birthdays & Mother's Day. I'd actually already visited my Mom on Mother's Day & gave her some cloth napkins I'd sewn up, but since I was on a snap-bag-making roll, I whipped one of those up for her too :)

Butterflies for my SIL, and the blueish for my MIL

The Hair Dresser for my oldest daughter, and Daisies for Mom

Penn State for my younger daughter, and Musical Notes for me

This pattern by Stitchin' Sisters for these "Snap Happy I" bags is easy to follow, and they're great fun to make (ie: fairly immediate gratification.) As you can see, they're perfect for those novelty fat quarters that seem to breed sorta like the piles of dirty laundry in my house!

The secret to their snap closure is a metal tape measurer inserted into the casing! Below is a pic of someone demonstrating how to open it using the flaps.

These fit nicely in a purse, tote, diaper bag, whatever... I like to hide my "girl supplies" in mine, but I've heard gals use them for make-up, pens/paper, medication, money, etc.



So those were a success. Now my EPIC FAIL....

I started with my blue tote of scrap fabric (if you look closely you can see that Stan Stan the Hairy Man climbed into it)...

Found some darks, some lights & cut them into 1/2" strips, not really caring how long they were -- and really, truly DID consult the pattern shown, "Get Hooked 2" by Grizzly Gulch Gallery. Was attempting to make a small table runner as shown...

Sewed all the many strips together, opting to go light, dark, light, dark, and so on.

Rolled them into a nifty fabric ball & began crocheting.

And this is what I was left with by the time I'd run out of strips that had been that nifty fabric ball...

Does this resemble the shown runners, placemats, center pieces on the front of that there pattern.... ANYTHING?? How 'bout a banana boat or the bottom of a crocheted slipper?!?!?
*FAIL*

I obviously didn't understand WHEN exactly to put the extra stitches in, thereby making the "corners". I did do those extra stitches in what I thought were the right places, but well, you can see how that turned out.

I will have to consult with my Crochet Expert On Hand, a.k.a.: MOM!! 

I found the crocheting soothing & fun to do -- I was stitching away while watching a movie, so perhaps I wasn't paying attention, thought it was mindless stitching, and thus I've borne a banana boat...

3 comments:

  1. Wow, those bags are really cool! I love them and love how you can make them really personal for people. Don't be too hard on yourself for the "fail" project. I admire you for doing anything with material or crotchet.

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  2. I so remember the "fail" projects when my kids were younger. I actually blamed many on my children and said how proud I was with what they made me. This way I could use the failures for their intended purpose. Love the bags and will give it a try. I've collected every movie ticket since I was 16 (many many years ago) and am trying to figure out how to display them. Any ideas?

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  3. Thanks Leah - It's hard to want to experiment when free time is hard to come by, but it really was enjoyable even as I saw it was getting quite wonky!

    badluckdetective - Those bags are addictive because they're quick & super cute to boot. (I seriously did NOT try to rhyme that!!LOL) Anyway, I've been thinking about how you could display those movie tickets, but so far my mind just wanders to some sort of collage.... but I'm not exactly sure what kind. I guess it also depends on HOW MANY we're talking about?? But even still, some way to frame them would be cool. I saw someone once who used posters from the movies to back up individual framed tickets, but that's not really most adults decorating style - that could take up whole walls!! If you try something, I'd love to see it!

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