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Thursday, August 17, 2023

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

7 comments:

  1. I enjoy making zippered pouches.They are a perfect way to use up fabric scraps and batting strips. I am sure your bags will be a big hit. They also make great gifts, much less labor intensive than a quilt.

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  2. You have been busy with the items for the market. Considering that your large bag would likely sell for $50 or more at a craft fair, $35 probably isn't an unreasonable price. I guess it depends on who attends if that is reasonable or not. All of your items turned out beautifully!

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  3. Lovely zippered bags! So clever of you to make them in so many different sizes. With the team fabric they will sell fast. Good luck on that market1 Thanks for sharing on my weekly show and tell, Wednesday Wait Loss.

    https://www.inquiringquilter.com/questions/2023/08/16/wednesday-wait-loss-341

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  4. The last time I sold a tote bag I got $85 for it and I would like to have priced it higher. The lady who bought it said she knew how much time went into it. There isn't anything wrong with having some higher priced items at your guild's Christmas market. There are lots of people looking for items around $100 because that is typically what they spend for gifts. A very simple tote bag at a high end store would cost more that that.

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  5. Those zipper pouches are so nice and useful.

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  6. What cute pouches - and your purse is gorgeous!!!

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  7. Yes you are! Well done on the bags

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