Farm Fresh Grocery Bag Project
Farm Fresh by Gingiber is such a fun collection. While there are farms just down the road from my little neighborhood, I wouldn't say I am a farm girl. BUT these chickens, roosters, cows, and more are just too much fun!
As soon as I saw the collection when our Moda rep came around, I knew a Grocery Bag was going to be on my must-make list.
Here's the details on how I made this one afternoon over the weekend ...
Pattern: Grocery Bag by Michelle Patterns (Pattern includes instructions for three sizes - I made the medium size for this project.)
Fabric: I used a panel (multi), three FQs for the back (red dots, chickens, red feathers), sides & handles, and 1 yard of the strawberries for the lining. I also used 1 yard of Drill cloth as an interlining to make my bag nice & sturdy.
A few changes:
The Grocery Bag pattern doesn't include any piecing instructions for the exterior, but if you know me at all, you know I love to piece a bag exterior!
Additionally, the pattern calls for muslin as the lining. I like to use Drill or other canvas because it makes it really sturdy. So, I cut my drill cloth to the size the pattern called for and then pieced my exterior panels and strips onto this. Everything else was assembled as per the pattern.
Piecing the Exterior:
My center panels were cut at 11.5" wide. And then my strips for the sides at 3.5" to be sure I'd have enough wiggle room. I lined up the chicken panel with the center of the canvas and then pinned the strips on top, stitching all the layers together. I pressed toward the side strips and then top stitched them in place.
I then pieced the back of the bag in the same way. I used a different print in the center and then the same chicken print on the sides.
Once I had my fabrics stitched to the canvas, I sewed around all four sides about 1/8" from the edge to secure the layers together.
From there, I assembled the bag as instructed in the pattern. I did use the same drill cloth in the handles as well to be sure they felt nice and sturdy.
The medium bag size worked perfectly for the large panel image. To make the larger bag size, I would probably add a bottom strip under the animal or frame the animal on all four sides. That's the fun part of customizing a pattern with piecing!
The medium size is easy to carry and folds up nicely... perfect for a quick trip to the farm stand or grocery store. It easily holds a large jar of PB and some soup cans with no problem!
Hope you enjoyed seeing this fun bag project!
Happy Sewing!
That is too cute. Love the panel and fabric…thanks for the tips also !
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