Christmas gift sewing part 3

Much of my November and December sewing time was spent making these wonderful little zippered bags. The pattern is "Sew Together Bag" by Sew Demented and you can order printed copies of the pattern from a handful of shops on etsy.com or download a PDF version from craftsy.com.

This bag pattern is not a quick sew and not for the faint-hearted, but if you can put aside your fear of zippers (each bag has four of them!) and devote a few hours to sewing the first one, each additional bag will go much faster. Each finished bag measures approximately 10" x 5" x 5".

There is a great online sew-along for this pattern complete with lots of extra photos and tips here.  I used these sew along instructions in conjunction with the pattern each time I made a bag, and found them to be a tremendous help - my first bag tuned out just as fabulous as my fifth!

The first bag was made as a November birthday gift for my sewing and traveling buddy, Kelly.

I used a variety of black and white prints, some with a sewing theme.  All the cut pockets, lining pieces, bag exterior, and binding pieces are shown here.

A view of the bag interior before sewing the outer zipper.  There are three internal pockets with contrasting linings and individual zippers.  I used different colored zippers and linings for each pocket in all of the bags.

This is a view of the interior after adding the external zipper and bindings.  It still opens very wide to accommodate and leave visible all the goodies you pack inside.

The second bag was for another sewing buddy and fellow Crystal Lake Modern Quilt Guild (CLMQG) Executive Board member, Lorrie.  More sewing themed prints, this time from the "Sew Stitchy" line by Aneela Hoey for Moda.

The blue version is still in residence at my house.  I haven't yet decided where it will end up :)

CLMQG Secretary Jill received this red, white, and turquoise version.

She's a fellow Paris lover whose favorite color is red, so I had to make her bag with this great fleur de lis print!

The external zipper and binding make a "handle" of sorts on each end of the closed bags.

And lastly this black and white beauty was made for Judy, our CLMQG Treasurer.  More scissors fabric, but this time on the bag exterior.

I probably couldn't get those stripes on the binding to match up again if I tried.  What a lucky accident!

I forgot to take a photo of the final touch on each bag - I added a letter "first initial" charm to each external zipper pull for personalization.  JoAnn's has some really cute charms in their beading section that are the perfect size - about 3/4" square.

This is the final installment of Christmas gift projects from 2014 that I have to share with you.  I believe I did more gift sewing in 2014 than any other previous year.  It was so much fun to sew all these individual, personalized gifts and even more fun to give them away and see how much the recipients enjoyed their surprises!

I've declared 2015 the year of finishing projects.  My guild is introducing a UFO Challenge at our meeting this weekend, and I've already got a list of 5 projects to register!  I could register soooo many more, but I'll start with the ones that I've got a decent chance of finishing.  More about those later...

Happy New Year!!  May it be a year filled with learning, sewing successes, and project finishes for all of us!