Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there. ~Josh Billings

The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground. ~Author Unknown

You maybe be wondering what became of my pile O’WIP's from last Fridays post. Weeeeellllll I got some things done that I wanted to but as always not as much as I would have liked.

Saturday I had hoped would be super productive because John was working, but the project I was working on too much longer than I had anticipated.

After this post about recycling plastic bags into crocheted shopping totes I have really had the whole plastic bag issue on my mind. I have my plastic bags all laid out ready to be turned into “yarn” but that is as far as I have gotten on that project. I did however have another idea. Creating reusable shopping bags from re purposed materials thus eliminated plastic shopping bags by using cute & stylish shopping bags made from materials that may have otherwise ended up in a landfill! Talk about killing two birds with one stone! (not that I regularly throw stones & certainly not at birds mind you, but you get the idea.)

That is the project that was giving me fits on Sat. The bag design that I was using as my inspiration was lined & I was trying to make my bag unlined but with just as neat & tidy of a finish. I had to try & try again to get the finished product to where I was satisfied. After many a seam being ripped I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.



All the seams as stitched & then encased in bias tape for a clean finish & added strength. The sides have gussets for added roominess. I added a pocket to the front for coupons, shopping list, pen, whatever.



So here is my WIP pile for this Fri.


Back left: cut out & ready to sew – 4 Western Heritage shirts, split skirt, AB Covington Bag
Back Middle: traced patterns – Onion 5036 blouse & vest pattern for the 3 vest I have an order for. I had to add 3” in the length for this guy!
Back & Front Right: More WIP’s to be cut out, another purse (haven’t decided on a pattern yet), more shopping bags & a plain split skirt (I think, I hate making just a plain one with the other fancy soutache trimmed ones, I have my reputation to up hold after all! Bawahahahah!I crack myself up!), some more purse fabric & other assorted WIPs.
Front Left: Cut & ready to sew - Reusable Shopping bags

So I didn't do too terrible, not as much as I would have liked but I think that even if I had an entire week to work non stop I still wouldn't make a dent in all the projects I would like to get done!

Here is a close up of the pocket for another shopping bag. I had stitched the rick rack on & I really like how it turned out.


How serendipitous is this? I started this post yesterday & was starting to finish it up this morning. As usual I was checking out my new feeds on Bloglines (is it just me or are the feeds like crack? I get so excited when I see new post pop up on someone’s blog! I would have to say that the Big Dance has nothing on Feeds when it comes to squashing productivity!). Anyway I am really enjoying the Adorn Mag blog as I mentioned yesterday (almost as much as the mag it's self I might add) so anyway what would the post for the day be about? Green crafters! (Hi Linda!) I just stumbled onto Sew Green the other day & have to admit that I haven't had a chance to delve into it as much as I want to but I was intrigued. Also LP mentions that she uses a tote bag to do her grocery shopping (See great minds do think alike!)along with how several other eco-conscious craft vendors are working to do their part.

Definitely worth checking out!