Post Xmas Frenzy

I don't know what it is about me and the period immediately following Christmas, but all I want to do is look at Christmas-themed crafts on the internet.  So I've been pinning, because I've finally figured out that I need to pin things in order to remember them.   I've also been going through a gift bag making frenzy.  Thirteen bags total, actually.  All Christmas themed.  I blame my mother who told me that my sister really wants a bigger collection of fabric gift bags.  I also blame my sister who confirmed this and then later texted me that birthday bags would be appreciated, as well.

boo!  blurry!

I started with this one, because it has been lingering in my stash like a barnacle on my ass, I swear.  It is ugly.  It is country-time-lemondade-lives-in-Vermont-ugly.  Seriously, I think this fabric should go listen to A Prairie Home Companion** and leave me alone.  My mother swears she did not contribute this slice of ugliness to my stash, but I have other thoughts.  Anyway, I think it was destined to be a pillow in a former life.  I took it and paired it with some lovely, woven green/white gingham (lovely by itself, but paired with this fabric...hideous):

Ugh. See?  Ugh!  

Let's cover that up and look at something delicious:

Ah, that's better.  So...this red fabric is hideous to the touch.  It's really stiff.  I was using the back side of it as the scrap fabric for ironing on fusible interfacing to things and I was about to put it away when it hit me that it should live on as a bag.  I paired it with some lightweight fabric and gave it some cording...and so pretty!  It's my favorite new bag, actually.

With the help of my mother-elf, I made a bunch of other lined, drawstring bags with blue Christmas fabric that has been in my stash for a good five years.  I paired it with the softest green/white stripey fabric that I was almost sure used to be a sheet in a former life.  It makes for a nice lining, though.  Then I used up some green fabric with the Christmas lining that was used in the polka dot bag:

Then my mom left and I lost my little elf helper, so I turned over to my scary serger.  I took a class a number of months back on the general usage of the thing at Treadle Yard Goods, but have not revisited it.  I even had the power foot still packed away in the bag that I had brought to the class.  Anyway, years ago when I made these bags, I also cut out a bunch of bags to sew, but never did.  So, yeah, they've been sitting in my stash since that post in 2009.  

Whatever.  

Stop judging me.

I didn't want to make any more unlined bags and I didn't really want to have to sew a million tiny bags, so they sat there until the other day when I serged them like crazy.  I think seven got serged up.  I didn't do drawstring casings, but attached a bit of ribbon to the back of the bag and I can just tie it up like so:

And so:

And then to make things even more appealing to my eco-conscious sister, I reused some ribbon from Bath and Body:

She's definitely getting that one.  

**No offense to anyone in VT.  I used to have to go there with an ex-boyfriend.  We would take the train up from Brooklyn and then his parents would drive the hour or so to their home in Vermont.  All the while, we listened to a best of CD of the Prairie Home Companion show and it always put me right to sleep.  I still can't listen to that show, even though it is like a Minnesota National Treasure or something.