As mentioned in PWYC, I'm going to make cloth shopping bags to replace all the ones I've purchased from stores. I'm concerned about carrying food in bags that quickly get dirty, so I want some that I can easily throw in the washer & dryer. I've found all kinds of free patterns online.
I finished the first test pattern last week. I like how easy it was to cut out and sew together. Here is the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvYgHRFNFYQI don't have the book with the pattern for that video so I estimated the general shape. Mine turned out a bit too small, because the pieces of fabric I had were not quite 1/2 yard wide. However, the bag will be fine for carrying canned food and other things that tend to get heavy in quantity.
I think I want bags the size of standard plastic bags from chain stores.
After I've tested a few more patterns to find the bag size and handle width that I really like, I will start an assembly line to make Christmas gifts.
I have lots of cotton print fabrics in my stash that I'll use for my test projects and keep for myself. Once I know what I'm doing, I have brand new fabrics for the gifts.
I was lucky enough to find the exact right number of coordinating fabrics for my co-workers, so they'll all get the same gift but won't be identical. I tried to match the prints to their personalities and colors I've seen them wearing to work.
Not forgetting the charity sewing items from last month. Deadlines for all of those aren't until January, though, so I'm going to do Christmas gifts first now that I have
A Plan.