Gingercake Love Your Lunch Box & GIVEAWAY

This lovely specimen is the Love Your Lunch Box pattern by Gingercake. Virginia gave me this pattern to help celebrate her Lunch Bag Sale month. She has 3 lovely lunch bag designs that are all $5 for the month of July. I chose this one because I’m feeling a bit guilty about the last 47 things I’ve made for L when J gets bupkis. This design would be great for a boy or a girl, and since I have both, I try to choose patterns that will do double duty.

PATTERN: The Love Your Lunch Box is an uber expansion on a simple lined bag. It has a handle, 2 exterior pockets (I only used 1), and a flap. The instructions are visual, and clear. The pattern pieces only required 3 pieces of tape to assemble (a serious departure from the Archer I just cut out). I was a little worried about sewing all the layers of lining/interfacing/fabric around those rounded corners, but it worked like a dream. The only semi tricky part is sewing the lining into the bag because there are a lot of layers. 

FABRIC: The body of the bag is my standard Joann denim that I keep going on about. I was having trouble finding a light denim in a particular shade, so I thought I’d try bleaching it myself. That way I can have any shade of blue I want (I want them all!). After a whole lot of experimentation yardage (you’ll be seeing a lot of bleached denim here in the future) it didn’t work as hoped. It always comes out looking tie dyed, which won’t work for the project I had in mind, but works great for a lot of other things. This test denim was the jumping off point for the lunch box. The green is a plain-jane piece of quilting cotton, of abominable quality, also from Joann. I originally purchased what in my mind was the perfect tiny accent fabric from a lovely local sewing shop. I washed it, dried it, and lost it! I bought the smallest piece possible, and that is my penance for being cheap. So there I am at Joann for the second time in one day, trying to find something just as perfect, or at least not so horrible, the store is closing, and I have a vague notion that all of these prints suck and I should just get a solid, and sew something onto it. After cutting out those pattern pieces I sewed lines of contrasting stitching 3/8" apart. These patches of quilting are the result, and I am just thrilled with them.

OTHER MATERIALS: This is not the kind of thing I would normally sew, and well…I should have read the directions before I went to Joann the first time, or I wouldn’t have ended up there the second time. Geesh! To maintain the structure of the bag each layer has interfacing, and the middle is a quilting type thing, you might put in a soft cooler, called Insul-Bright. I couldn’t find Insul-Bright the first time around, so I bought an interfacing that looks like quilting, but has a fusible side, and is about the thickness as Insul-Bright. This quilting substitute worked out just fine. Its amazing how a few floppy  layers sewn together makes one very substantial layer. I also grabbed self adhesive Velcro by mistake. DO NOT DO THIS. I’m pretty sure they use this stuff to stick fighter jets to air craft carriers. It totally gummed up my machine, and ruined a needle. Grrr, won’t make that mistake again.

ALTERATIONS: As mentioned earlier, I only used one exterior side pocket. I also cut a corner off of the flap to make my little decorative quilted patch. That’s it.

SNACK POUCH: This pattern includes a bonus snack pouch pattern, which my family uses a ton of. I added the thick interfacing to the exterior fabric so I could do my quilting move. I also added pull taps to the top, and I extended the Velcro the full width of the bag. I will be making at least 10 more of these.

Even in second grade my son takes lunch and a snack to school each day, so this bag might be a bit of a squeeze. No problem. As part of Lunch Bag Sale Month Virginia has a bunch of tutorials on her blog showing tons of ways to customize her patterns. One shows how to make a bigger Love Your Lunch Box, and add a zipper pocket. That is the beauty of a pattern like this - it has a ton of customization potential. J loves his lunch bag, and L has already requested one of her own. I’m thinking more bleached denim…

*** 

All Gingercake lunch bag patterns are only $5 each for the month of July. 

GET YOURS HERE!

***

Gingercake has generously offered one of her lunch bag patterns to a SweetKM reader. Her designs are great for adults and kids. Check out the selection then use the form below to enter. Giveaway closes next Thursday (7/24) at midnight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last Minute Gifts : Lola the Owl Gift Card Holders

Once I got started with my Lola the Owl pattern, oh Gussie, the ideas started flowing, and a purse just didn't seem like enough. How about Christmas tree ornaments? I hate to call this a last minute gift, because let's face it, I've only just started to think about Christmas gift giving. I still have unrealistic plans to make one (for now top secret) homemade toy per child, and a perfectly vintage inspired holiday dress for L, not to mention knit Etsy orders into the wee hours of the morning. All the more reason to whip up a few Lola ornaments now with the tiny bits of fabric I already had on hand.

We give an embarrassing amount of gift cards over the Holidays. Can a homemade gift card holder make a gift card less of a cop out? Let's hope so, because I shrunk down the back pocket to be just the right size for one. 

I'm also pairing the Lola ornaments with stuffed hearts in a bright red cookie tin as a Christmas themed gift for a December bridal shower. The possibilities are ENDLESS!

Details:

Print out Lola the Owl Pattern at 40% and construct as directed.

Add 1/4" to the length and width of the back pocket.

Use 3/8" Buttons for the center of the eyes.

Add a little loop of ric-rac so you can attached it to a Christmas tree or gift.

The perfect little addition to a perfectly wrapped gift, or a present on its own.

Sweet Heart Valentine Ornaments

We have moved far too many times for me to consider myself the kind of sewer that has a "stash." But I am scrap happy with these little hearts. After barely rummaging through a single fabric box I found pieces my mother saved from her early 80's quilting phase, torn oxford shirts, vintage ebay finds, and all the pieces of fabric I bought with big plans that never actually happened. Thirty seven mini hearts later, I realize I have quite the "stash" after all.

The simplicity of this idea makes it infinitely adaptable. I've made an advent countdown (more on that later), Christmas gift toppers and two magic wands with this pattern. I'm sure even a beginner could come up with ten more ideas before the first heart is cut out. It's numerous uses merit a formal, written down tutorial, with clear step by step instructions, FREE (heavens, what's gotten into her!?) right here for all to share.

I can see little hearts at each place at your Valentine table, or tucked into the pocket of an unsuspecting beau. So, download away. Please keep me up to date on any Sweet Heart innovations that simply must be shared with the world.

Download now: Sweet Heart Ornament Pattern

Fine Print: Please do not redistribute this pattern. You can share to your heart's content by linking directly to this post. Thanks.

Last Minute Gift : Craft Bags

There is just nothing like making a project out of a project. Like most moms, I make everything during a fleeting window when Kid 1 is at school and Kid 2 is napping. How hard can a drawstring bag be? Easy as pie, right? No reason to plan ahead or even think anything through.

You'll notice the slight variation in detailing between the two. One was made during nap. No time to reference the vast body of interweb wisdom. MUST GET IT DONE! Just reinvent the wheel. The second was done after my walk to pick Kid 1 up at school. The stupidly simple solution washed over me, as soon as the stroller hit the pavement.

I hate to call these craft kits. Kit implies a prescribed end result. While I can wonder down the path of possibility, who am I to tell this kid what to do with her art supplies?

Big Girl Pillow

There's nothing like a big ol' pile of what you should be doing, to make you do what you've been procrastinating. I've been putting off a bobbled pillow for L's new big girl bed. A few less desirable things on the to-do list, made the pillow seem like an easy project.

Its probably better not to see how the sausage is made. I get the geometry of such things, am fairly happy with the end result (hidden zipper), but wouldn't presume to win a blue ribbon for impeccable craft at the 4-H round-up. I'm satisfied that I can cross it off the to-do list.

I bought the fabric, and a few other really cute prints, at Ikea (seriously!) a few months ago. The ball fringe is from my mother-in-law's archive of mid-20th century sewing scraps. Really, it could be 50+ years old. When a little bitty seamstress passes in her small town, she seems to be the one who inherits their stash. Lucky her...lucky me - I benefit from the stash, without being responsible for the storage.