Market Bag

It seems January in Quilt Blogland is a time to pull out the WIP's and get busy, that is, the Works in Progress. I heard a new one today, PhD's, Projects Half Done, as in, "I'm working on my PhD." That's pretty funny, we try so hard sometimes...

So I pulled out this market bag and finished it. The side seams were already sewn, I just had to layer the lining inside and attach handles.

I had fun auditioning buttons from my vintage collection.

Did you know you could sew buttons on using your machine? Look in the manual, there's usually an open toed foot and instructions to drop the feed dogs, set the stitch length to zero and the zig-zag width to match the holes in the button. I like to use the needle up, needle down control so I'm not sewing too fast, in case the button shifts or whatever.

I love it! I was going to use it at the grocery store in place of plastic bags, but so far it's gone to work with me every day this week. And coworkers have asked me to make some for them. Wow! BTW, it's printed, all I did was cut the bag out and sew it together; it only looks like I spent hours piecing and adding embroidery...