I'm Turning Into a Bag Lady!

Most of my stitching time over the past week has been spent on more pieces for the guild's Christmas market in November. After finishing the Diva Wallets (see last week's post HERE,) I continued with the same team fabrics to make sets of zipper pouches. 

The University of Georgia pouches have a very old fabric for the lining, Pointillist Palette in red and black.

The lining for the Georgia Tech pouches is a wavy black and white check.

Here are the pieces for two sets of pouches, plus the zippers for them. Each main fabric has been fused to the lining fabric plus asmall rectangle of interfacing to stiffen the bottom of each pouch. 

I was able to make a total of 11 pouches from these fabrics, and I still have more of the Tech fabric left. They range in size from 2x2x4 for the tiniest size up to 4x4x8 for the largest. The close-up of the UGA pouches shows how the lining fabric changes color.

The pattern that I used for these is "A Little Duffle Do It" by Karen West of For the Love of Fabric. I've made many of these pouches over the years and frequently given them as gifts. I checked, and the pattern is still available at many places online.

After the pouches were finished, I switched over to making a tote bag. For this project, I used the pattern "A Bonnie Bag" by Favorite Things. My copy of this pattern shows a date of 1995 on it, so it may be a little harder to find. I've made a few changes to my version, including eliminating the flap and button closure.

This bag is another that I have made as a gift many times, although it has been several years since the last ones. This time I used a red border stripe print and a coordinating fabric for the lining/contrast. The finished size of the bag is about 14.5" wide x 6.5" deep x 14" high.

There is a zipper across the top (but I'd like to figure out a better way to set the zipper in for the next bag.)

There are two padded outside pockets, one on each side...

and six pockets in the lining.

My biggest concern about the tote bag is how it might be priced for the Christmas market. I know that the fabrics I used for this bag were purchased many years ago, probably for not more than $5-6/yard, and most of the other supplies (zipper, webbing for straps, fleece interfacing) were probably purchased on sale. However, when I calculated the cost of all the supplies to make one bag at current prices, it came to more than $35 (and that's with figuring fabric at only $10/yard.) 

I'm planning to take this bag along to our guild meeting tomorrow and talk to some of the people who have more experience with pricing for the market. I'd be glad to make more of these bags if they think the bags will sell at a reasonable price. Otherwise, I can make many more of those little pouches for the same investment of both money and time.

Linking up with:

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA