The Bag Lady and the Cat Lady

{…we now return you to the regularly scheduled decor and crafty randomness that is this blog…}

But first a cat picture…

...meow? — …the princess & less grumpy one of our 2 felines….

I was thinking the other day that bags are like cats… you can’t have just one right???

Purses, tote bags, zippered pouches- the more you have, the more stuff you get to accumulate to fill ’em up…!

Recently I had the pleasure of making some special order pouches for a new friend who I met doing the craft sale for the past 2 years…

Miss Sarah of Plumb Worn Out

…and turns out she’s my neighbor… like on the same road and everything…! And at her request I made her some custom zip pouches to store her crafty supplies in….

I take no credit for the charming fabric combination… I simply dumped out all my fabric and scraps and let her have at it!

Earlier this year I got lucky when my best friend dropped off a PILE of goodies from her sweet Gi-gi’s stash that they found when they were cleaning out her house. There was vintage fabric + zippers + buttons!!! …oh my!

And my neighbor made some pretty awesome choices: For her linings- blue dotted swiss and vintage blue quaker flowers both courtesy of Gi-gi…. The outside fabrics are left overs from my past projects – cream dropcloth from a slipcover for my mama and tan linen from my faux roman shades…!

{I confess….I do suffer from fabric hoarding tendencies…. sadly if a piece of fabric is bigger than my phone, I will keep it…. please tell me there is hope and I’m not the only one…!}

Reclaim, rework and recreate, right??

So enamored was I of Sarah’s bags that I had to make my own….I mean I still had plenty of scraps that needed a purpose…! Felt compelled to add a flower… made from ….you guessed it… more scraps… this time from the elastic portion of a fitted sheet!

I knew I could use the elastic part somehow so I saved those scraps until the inspiration struck… To make these little rosettes, grab your glue gun and take an elastic strip and start rolling it up….every couple of turns apply a dot of glue to hold it together. You can stretch the elastic a little for a less ruched effect or just let it do it’s thing. Keep wrapping until you reach your desired diameter. Couldn’t be easier… or more cost effective!

{Again, I confess, I have been known to buy random fitted and flat sheets from goodwill to get solid color fabric for projects….a good wash and trimming of the edges and you have a pile of happy fabric for not a pile of cash…! ….And now you know all my secrets….!}