Making Things to Hold Other Things

As anyone with kids knows, the older kids get the smaller their toys get (and the more tiny pieces come with any particular toy). I've had my eye on this pattern for clear storage bags for a while, and after the arrival of a bunch of new Christmas toys, it seemed like a good time to sew a couple of them up.

I already had some vinyl in my stash that I had picked up in a remnant bin quite a while ago. For this first bag, I used the leftover Star Wars fabric from the Kindle cover I made for my son. Which was quite fitting, since it's purpose is to hold Star Wars toys!



I cut my fabric pieces according to the calculations in the tutorial, but my vinyl tube was about an inch larger than my bottom circle. Not a huge deal- I just trimmed the excess and sewed the tube back together. I assumed I just messed up the math, but after I was all done I went back to read the comments on the post and other people had the same problem. Apparently you should find your circumference measurement by using your diameter minus the seam allowance. When I made the second one for my daughter I used this adjusted formula and everything came out perfectly.



Vinyl is not the easiest thing to sew with, but it's definitely worth the extra effort. It's a lot like working with laminated cotton, which I've written about before. I love how the vinyl makes these bags stand up on their own- makes it easy to put toys away at the end of the day.



For myself, I made another little bag pattern on my to sew list- the Lined Drawstring Bag from In Color Order. I had no real purpose in mind for this bag, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it.



Now I want to put everything I own in a cute little fabric bag!