Zipping Along...

I'm pretty committed this year to using up the overabundance of supplies that reside in my sewing room. In fact when we were invited to choose a word for the year, I hyphenated the concept into my word: Use-it-up. Fortunately plenty of fun ideas abound for doing this and I came across a post by friend Robbie's Paw Prints. She had followed a tutorial by Laura Kemshall for making Upcycled Purses. I was intrigued, so I found the site on Design Matters TV where I could sign up, too. The purses are made using old quilt projects. One thing I enjoy is participating in quilt challenges and making projects to explore new methods. So there were many small projects hanging in the closet and doing nothing because there is just not enough wall space to display them all. These seemed like the perfect projects to upcycle. The little purse shown here began as a sample block, got turned into a quilt challenge project, and finally became a useful zipper bag!

This was a stitch sampler project for learning and using my sewing machine's decorative stitches. I like that it, too, has become a functional piece. There happened to be several colorful zippers in my supplies, so it worked out nicely to use them up in such a fun way.

This beaded fairy house was part of a "fantasy home" challenge. Since all of the pieces are already quilted, the zipper bags go together very quickly. And Linda has some handy tricks for sewing in the zippers easily. I didn't even need to change to the zipper foot on the machine.

Here's the back side of the dream house bag. Because Linda's online video tutorial is priced in British pounds, I wasn't sure of the exact cost. But I was very pleasantly surprised at the conversion rate that showed it to be very affordable- well under $5. So I made good use of my purchase and have continual access to the video for review as needed.

This zipper bag is made using a class project done in a workshop with Jane Sassaman several years ago. I really enjoyed giving these old projects a new life. So "Use-it-up": old quilt projects-check; an assortment of zippers-check. A nice feeling to be moving toward my goal.