Not long before I left Whyalla, the ladies from my Wednesday Sewing Group had a conclave and discussed a problem- every single one of them had a stash of Christmas prints that they’d never be using again, on account of having children and grandchildren already plastered with very same holly-and-snowman prints. (Crafters have no self-control at all around holidays.) Pretty soon, Jenny’s cutting table was buried beneath a 55 liter lucky-dip tub overflowing with red and green and white cotton scraps in all grades of sparkly. The glitter was sort of oozing out under the lid onto on the floor all around the chest and turning the carpet twinkly gold. She announced, very formally, that this stash was would be reserved as a ‘if-you-need-it-it-will-sparkle’ group resource for holiday-ifs-and-when sewing, but when sewers are in the same room as free fabric they have all the restraint of a tree full of magpies. And somehow, by a natural progression, there we were, making Christmas tote bags.
Lots of Christmas tote bags.
I didn’t get all my christmas tote bags finished before we left Whallya – my old Elna sewing machine choked on the wool batting and before I could get it fixed we were knee-deep in packing to leave. Last week I picked them up again.
Themed bags take care of half your Christmas gift-wrapping needs in one fell swoop (add one cellophane bag of home-made cookies and you’re good to go!) and using up other peoples fabric feels like virtuous thrift. And that’s a nice feeling when I’m spending my free time hunting down vintage ecru valenciennes on etsy.
Here’s a lovely tutorial, if you’ve too much seasonal fabric glittering up your sewing stash. When I left Whyalla there was still half a tub of christmas cheer left. The ladies were talking about table runners…
