The Mechanics Of It All…

May 22, 2014

Within the last two days I have effectively disabled two pieces of equipment that are necessary to the continuation of my happy marriage.  The first to go was the vacuum cleaner.  I was in mid-vacuum on Tuesday, swinging that cumbersome thing around the living room like I was the star ballerina in Swan Lake when it started making a loud thumping noise.  Hmmmm… so I kept right on dancing…ummmm…vacuuming.  Then I started to get a whiff of something getting hot.  Lest I catch the carpet (and, by extension, the house) on fire, I decided it might be in my best interest to take an break from my dance routine and try to figure out what was making the noise.  I emptied the canister that holds the dirt, emptied the other compartment above the canister that holds the dirt, cleaned the filter on the side of the vacuum, then using my UFC (Ultimate Fighting Competition) skills I flipped that baby over and pulled out about a pound of hair that had accumulated around the rollers over the past five months.  About an hour later, I turned the thing back on, fully expecting it to work perfectly.  Uhhhhh…nope. 

The second piece of machinery to be disabled was my sewing machine.  I was in the middle of working on a sweet little project to share with you for this post.  You’ve probably seen the shopping bags that are made out of the plastic rip-stop type bags that dog/cat/horse/chicken food comes in.  They are really very cute.  I don’t have any of those bags, but I’ve kept that idea filed away in my head in case I ever came upon any other type of bag that I could substitute for those. 

At any rate, the other day I was looking for recipes on the Lundberg rice website.  They sell a “Wild Blend” rice that I just love.  In looking at their website, I was checking out their gluten-free products and noticed a statement that said some of their bags were not recyclable.  These bags are really attractive, so I felt compelled to find a way to turn them into something pretty and functional.  Since the Wild Blend that I buy comes from Costco, it comes in a four pound bag.  Not really big enough for a shopping bag, but it would be suitable to carry small knitting projects. 

I loosely based my design on the pet food shopping bags that I had already seen on the internet.  I had a yard of “test” fabric that I had purchased from a local fabric store, intended to make bedroom curtains and throw pillow covers.  At the time I bought it, I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but it did grow on me so I went back and bought twelve yards for my bedroom redecoration project.  The extra yard was up for grabs and it had similar colors as the Lundberg rice bag so I decided to use it for this purpose.  Below are pictures of the project so far.  I will post pictures of the finished project when I get my sewing machine repaired.

Not having these two machines available is inconvenient, to say the least.  I miss the sewing machine greatly…the vacuum, not so much (except the ballerina dance part).

Cut top and sides off bag, saving the
Velcro-type closure from the top of
the bag. 

Bag, after cutting apart, and fabric to be used for handles
and sides.

Sew cut edges of fabric together and press, with
seam in the middle.  (4 pieces)

Stitch down the "ridges" at bottom of the bag so they lay flat.

One side of fabric has been partially sewn to
bag.  Straps will be sewn to top sides of bag
and black binding will be sewn to top,
unfinished edge of bag.