Feed Sack Tote

Good morning, everyone- I hope you had a great weekend!

For Mother's Day, I made my mom a couple of tote bags using woven plastic feed sacks that seem to pile up pretty quickly around here. I used a great tutorial that Rebecca from The Garden Roof Coop wrote for Community Chickens, which can be found here.

Now, I'll preface this by saying that I'm not great at following online instructions for sewing projects. I'm a visual learner, so I tend to look at the photos, skim the actual instructions, and then wing it until I get stuck. Don't be like me. Rebecca's instructions are clear and easy to understand, especially when you actually follow them. (Next time, I'm going to print them out so I can do just that!)

All in all, it was a nice and easy project that I'm looking forward to doing again. The second bag (the green one on the left in the last picture) was completely freehand; I wanted to try for a shoulder strap and a slightly wider bag. I think once you make one, you'll have ideas on how to customize future bags as well.

I also whipped up a table runner for her, inspired by a baby quilt over at Cluck Cluck Sew. The runner took me about 4 hours to sew, start to finish.

I'd picked up one of those rolls of pre-cut fabric strips a while back, so it was just a matter of arranging the fabrics and sewing... no fussing around with cutting and all of that. Loved it! I'll definitely be getting more of them to have around, for last-minute projects or for when I just feel like sewing something and don't have anything specific in mind.


Do you like to make gifts for people instead of buying them?