Emergency Chocolate Bag from Old Shirt <$2
Materials needed:
Old shirt to use as fabric
Fusible interfacing (Pellon 808 = what I used, $1.25/yd and this was less than 1/8 yd)
7" zipper (What I had to buy...about $1.25 at Walmart)
Embellishments to attach to zipper end if desired
Sewing machine
This is the tutorial I used to sew the zipper to the fabric and lining. Follow the tutorial roughly and just ignore how she's using vinyl and a longer zipper. I followed her instructions until the picture where it starts with "Use a safety pin...". Once the zipper is in, unzip it, keep the project inside out, sew the side seams, and then turn the whole thing right side out. You're done. I used a crochet hook to poke the corners out. You can start with any sized rectangle you want, but my rectangles were 7.5" wide and about 7" long.
The shirt was pretty sheer so I ironed interfacing to the outer panel and let the lining remain thin. I added a crystal fob for the zipper pull with fishing line and crimp beads. You know, from my endless stash of fishing line and crimp beads.
I don't want to say a caveman could do it (because zippers scare me) but it wasn't bad.
I made this for my mom for Mother's Day. I call it the "Emergency Chocolate Bag" and it is for her purse. Every woman needs some chocolate at the most inopportune time whether it's in traffic, waiting at the doc, sitting in a meeting, after a hike, to enhance a flight delay, etc. Sometimes we need chocolate and we don't have any. Hence why I made the bag and a dozen refills. Also, sometimes you come across someone during your errands that is having a massively horrible day- like a grumpy checker, a mother of children having synchronized tantrums, or someone that looks lonely. Voila! You can give THEM some chocolate (still sealed...less creepy when coming from a stranger) and make their day.
I also made a "Kate & Will" version for my aunt that holds a bag of Haribo gummi bears, because she always has those in her purse. This isn't a ReDEUX since I had to buy the fabric...
Melissa Durkovich Lawson
Reader Comments (1)
This is the greatest Bear Bag...Kate would certainly approve and would drool over it if she were reading Melissa's Blog. But, alas, I'm the drooler...I LURVE GUMMI BEARS! As long as they're Haribo and sit open for two days so they're a little crunchy.
I'm not as smart or deep as my beloved niece...but I am just as particular. A particularist, not a perfectionist.
PS...If you're a weeper, these are great for those little pkgs of Kleenix that, naked, come apart in one's handbag. Nothing worse than a half-destroyed tissue to offer another weeper!