BEFORE the sewing machine finally DIED

My sewing machine is dead! Completely seized up, and beyond repair. I guess I should have looked after it better, BUT it has lasted 15 years, been used well, so it's done well!

Before that happened, I finished using up the fabric that was leftover from making those craft room curtains.  As you may remember, I had to match the pattern on the fabric because they were wide curtains, so had lots of fabric left.  I decided to make some shopping bags (totes).  They are smaller then the ones I usually make, but the size was dictated by the size of the pieces of fabric I had and a desire to use as much of it as possible.

I made them using french seams as I did not want to get my overlocker (serger) out and fight with it.  But that meant huge piles of fabric layers at the seams, so for future bags, I am going back to using the overlocker, and have pulled it out, and actually had far less fighting with it than I expected, it went really well.  But that's another project that I cannot now finish because of the dead sewing machine.  Hmmm, SOON, hopefully, SOON there will be a replacement!

So, in the meantime, here's another photo of the bags I did complete!

You can check out the blogs that I link my crafty posts up to, over in the sidebar!  If I link to yours and have missed your banner from that list, please let me know and I will make sure to add it.

I am selling these bags to raise money for a mission trip to Romania, to teach some craft projects to a gypsy community, so they can begin to support themselves by selling them at their local markets.  I made 4 of these, 1 is already promised to a friend, and the other 3 are down at church to see if anyone there would like one!

Hopefully, if I get my replacement machine soon, I will be able to get more bags done, using up other fabrics that have been in my stash for years, or are being re purposed from other projects.  When I have some more done I might set up an Etsy shop, hmmmmm.