Sew Weekend

In order to achieve my New Year resolution to start sewing garment this year, I am taking sewing classes from Craftsy.  I am starting with the free mini-classes first.  Once I am more comfortable with my sewing machine, I would then venture into the more advanced ones.

I've made lined drawstring bags before, but the tutorial I followed was not there anymore.  And to be honest, I had no understanding of the whole construction at all.  So I took the class and it was great ... really really great.  You have the downloadable pattern as well as the videos.  Kristin broke down the process into easy-to-understand segments.  Besides, you can go with your comfortable pace and watch as many times as you need.

So, on Saturday I watched the drawstring bag portion of the class and made this:

All fabrics are from stash (I love the JoAnn's raments bin!). I love the blue one a lot and have wanted to make something with it for a long time.  Focusing on the construction of the bag, I skipped all the embellishing.  Besides, the fabrics are pretty enough.  ;-)

To make sure I really get it this time, on Sunday, without watching the video, I made another one:

I randomly chose some colorful pieces from the Color Wheel Quilt leftovers (and I have A LOT of leftovers!) to piece together the center panel.  Got a bit lazy with the drawstrings and used some ribbons from stash instead (the color may be a bit too dark ... perhaps replace them later if I find something more matching.)  I even added a trim and make it more roomy by sewing across the two bag corners.  I love this one because it just fits my current project need:

  The bag is big enough for a whole cone of Pony 2-ply (3500 yards!), with which I am making a sampler afghan using tiny (US 0) needles.  Instead of making 8" square blocks, mine would be 4" ones.  And they are pretty cute:

It's certainly an impulsive project since I already have another afghan on the needles:

Magical Mosaic Afghan

But I am such a sucker for sampler afghan ... simply can't control it when the Google+ knitting group decided to do a year-long knitalong with this.  What I discovered is that making small blocks using tiny needles is actually quite enjoyable.