Woohoo! Happy Bag-O-Mania!
I don't have to be boring anymore! What I mean by that is that my computer is letting my download pics from my camera again. No idea why it stopped or why it started again, but I'm just gonna take it and run. Here are the bags I've been sewing up.

Patchwork Bag

First, I found some old quilt scraps. These came from the first set of fabric I bought upon receiving my very own sewing machine. I bought 8 different fabrics, 4 patterns in a blue shade and 4 in a green shade. The blues all matched as did the greens. And some of the patterns between the blues and greens matched too. The quilt top is done (and awaiting being quilted, which I'm no good at), but I had exactly one 6" square left of each print. So I cut each of these up into 4 3" squares, found a fabric in a turquoise that exactly matched in pattern one of the prints I'd used in my quilt (and I found this in my stash) and used it for the top and bottom border and the handles. I also used a plain turquoise fabric inside (which you can't see) and I used a heavy duty double sided fusible webbing to make the patchwork portion and the lining one piece. Then I cut the pieces into a tapered design and assembled it. Here is the finished product:



The tapered design makes it stay open at the top rather than sit flat as 2 rectangles sewn together would. I'm really glad I made this choice. However if I do mash it down flat it has a fun shape to it.

I think this will make a nice wine caddy (altho it also perfectly fits longish straight knitting needles). It may become a Christmas gift along with a bottle of wine and a set of the wine charms I have been working on. Because of the heavy duty adhesive the bag has a crinkly proprety to it...it stands very stiff and reminds me of a thick cardboard bag. But prettier.

Denim Floppy Bag

On to the next bag. This came from a pair of jeans where the zipper had come off one side of the track. I cut 4" squares and sewed them together with a .5" seam allowance. My original intention was to let it fray and use that side as the outside, but when it was done it looked way too 80's. So I turned it inside out and now it's much more 90's looking, hah! I bought some pretty trim at walmart (got a yard of this for under $2, and had a little left for the pocket bag, below). I also used an iron on applique that I'd gotten on clearance. Back at the Walmart near my undergrad institution they had a ton of appliques and bags of ribbons clearanced to $.10 each, so I bought nearly all of them. Here is the bag, stuffed full of the baby items I am sending to my cousin:



I figure my cousin can use this as a diaper bag or whatnot. The handles are only glued on (with fabric glue that seems to actually fuse the fabric together), so it can hold a decent amount but I wouldn't trust it with books or anything. And the handle is made out of either the side leg seams or the inner leg seams, I forget which.

I'm working on a similar, but smaller, bag in the same pattern. Changes are that I used interfacing to make it more stable, didn't allow ANY fraying, and am attaching handles. It has a much cleaner look and sort of reminds me of a linen bag. I used appliques on it that I once put on a pair of skorts of my mom's (she had some bleach marks she wanted me to fix somehow), so I am going to give it to her for her Bday. I really like it tho and may have to make one for myself as well.

Denim Pocket Bag

From the same pair of jeans, I had 2 pockets. I cut these out and sewed them together, then used a little bit of the seam for the handles. The sewing was a pain cause I had to do some of it by hand due to the thickness of the many layers of denim. I really like the way it came out tho. I then washed it with some new jeans and since one pair was very dark, it ended up dying the fray blue. Bonus! I then decorated each side with a dragonfly applique and some trim. The first side is colorful and fun, while the other is more mellow. Here they are:



This is likely to become a gift for a little girl this Christmas, stuffed with girly goodies. I may consider adding sticky velcro or something, not sure yet.

That's all the bag talk for now! More pics when I sew the handles to the other one (camera and computer permitting).

In other news I decided on a pattern to knit with my Bernat Denimstyle. It's the jackety cardigan with pockets from the Vogue International Knitting Winter 2003/2004 issue. I'm alreayd loving how the little bit I have done feels!