Sew Powerful Purses #156-159 (2024) in Hot Air Balloon Fabric

I'm Flying High, getting ready for the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2024 by making some hot air balloon purses. I took these to Old Town to sell them at Blue Portal Gift Shop. Any purses that I sell there I will donate the money to Sew Powerful Purse Project. It takes $10 to fill each purse with the hygiene items that the girls need each month. 

I had also taken in a couple of purses with a Kokopelli and batik scraps on the flap a couple months ago. So far, I am happy to report one of the Kokopelli purses sold and one hot air balloon purse sold, although I don't know which one. I am hoping the rest of the purses sell as we get closer to Balloon Fiesta (starts in 44 more days, for 9 days of balloon activities). If they do not sell then some sweet girls in Zambia will be receiving them to use. So it's a win-win either way. 

I love the fabric with hot air balloons in this print.

Front with pocket.

Side of purse.

Back of purse with a slip pocket too.

3 more purses that I fussy cut the balloons from some fabric scraps and appliquéd them on to the purses flaps. Batik fabric scraps sewn before the appliqué was added.

Same fabric for the purses and all have pockets on the back too.

Pin It Now!

3 H2O to Go Water Bottle Slings in Hot Air Balloon Fabrics

Hello hot air balloon lovers and water bottle sling users, this was a custom order I finished the beginning of June. My customer ordered 3 of these H20 to Go Water Bottle Slings (she ordered 3 last year too) for this year's Balloon Fiesta coming in October for her guests. Pattern is from Linds Handmade.

I decided to use 3 different hot air balloon fabrics and each has a different color waterproof canvas lining and a different color zipper on the pocket. I used the same blue webbing straps on all 3.

I had a add just a smidge of blue to make the front pocket large enough as this was the last of this fabric.

The waterproof lining keeps any bottle sweating from entering into the front zip pocket and easy to clean too.

Inside the pocket is a couple of pockets to hold a phone, a passport and the little wallet I included in each bag.

And I add a hot air balloon charm to all the zipper pulls too.

Pin It Now!

Winslow Market Bag

This tote was made last year (my how times flies!). It's the Winslow Market Bag, made using scraps of nylon fabric that hot air balloons were made from. It is the actually scraps leftover from making hot air balloons. I sewed pieces together to create the main pieces, the straps and had pieces large enough for the front and back pockets. These totes are great because they hold a lot and are lightweight and can be folded small and put into a glove box, or purse.

I followed the Winslow Market Bag pattern, except I didn't line this bag. I have made a few of these bags unlined, but I did line one and loved it lined, so I will line some of these bags in the future. However, lining the bag does put the cost up for selling it of course. 

This bag measures 12 1/2" wide x 16" high x 5 1/2" deep.

The other side of the bag.

If you would like to purchase this bag (I also have a few others made in this style available, unlined), the cost for the unlined bag is $39 (shipping included, USA only, international shipping is extra).

I invoice through PayPal (you can pay with a credit card or PayPal). Email me if you are interested, thanks.

Pin It Now!

MIY Tote in Hot Air Balloon Ripstop Nylon Fabric

Another MIY Tote (Moments by Liz) that I used scraps leftover from hot air balloon making. I had to get creative and sew scraps together to make a front and back large enough to create a tote. The tote measures 17" wide x 15" high x 3 1/2" deep. I love the bright colors.

Here is one side all pieced together.

Liz calls these Danish corners, which show on the outside of the bag.

This is the other side of the tote.

I lined the bag and used the balloon material (ripstop nylon) for a bag facing.

Added a pen pocket on each side of the main pocket.

As I pieced the balloon material together, I topstitched in a variegated thread throughout.

Location shoot around my yard~

I really like how this bag looks and feels with it being lined. It is still so light, but sturdy and makes a great shopping bag or beach bag too. But I need to be careful because it would act as a parachute in a strong wind and get blown away, lol!

I am going to make some more and line them too. The unlined ones I made last year are nice, but the lining just makes it even better.
Pin It Now!

Bags Made with Rip-Stop Hot Air Balloon Material

A lot of large scraps of rip-stop nylon material (the material hot air balloons are made out of ) was donated to my quilt group. The woman donating the material hated seeing all this end up in the landfill and she was encouraging us to make bags using the scraps of nylon material. She herself made several bags and donated the bags to the local food banks for the people to have something to carry their food home in. Plastic bags will be banned from all stores starting in January 2020, so people need to start bringing their own bags.

I have been bringing my own bags for over 35 years now when I shop. I earned 5 cents to 10 cents every time I brought my bag to the store; so in 35+ years I actually paid for the bags a few times. I guess rewarding people to bring bags wasn't working, so now if you don't have a bag now you can purchase a cloth or a paper bag. They should have charged people for the bags all along and that would have encouraged people to bring their own.

Back to the bags I made with the scraps from hot air balloon making. I made a couple styles of bags. The first is the Stowaway Tote (a free pattern from Moments). I used Velcro instead of a snap to close the bag and added decorative button on top.

In order to make any of these bags, I needed to first sew some pieces of material together in order to create the size fabric I needed for the bag(s). I sewed seams and then pressed seams open and topstitched on both sides of the seams. The side seams of the bags I sewed a French seam, encasing the raw edges.

Here is the Stowaway Tote~

The Stowaway Tote here all folded up into a wallet size that fits nicely into a purse. (This has Sold)

Open up the tote and you have a bag with a pocket. The rip-stop nylon holds the creases in the bag, making it easy to refold the bag after use.

This is the other side of the tote in different colors. That lime green was a different kind of nylon as it was stiffer and sounds like someone wrestling with a bag of potato chips when you handle it, LOL! There were a couple of colors like that and the others felt softer and some were a bit limper feeling too. I wonder if they mix the different kinds of nylon into one hot air balloon? 

To fold to bag,  you place the handles down first and then fold in the sides. then fold this into thirds and close with the Velcro.

Here is another Stowaway Tote~

I had to piece the pocket to make this one. (This one has Sold)

Opened up with the pocket.

Back side of bag.

Next is the Winslow Market Tote~ (from a Quilting Arts magazine years ago).

This bag needed a center, sides, pockets, handles, and a bottom. This bag is larger and has boxed bottom. Since the material is light, it could be folded up. The original pattern for this bag is made in cotton and lined, so I had to adlib when making this out of the nylon material.

This is the other side of the bag. As you can see with both bags, I had to piece several pieces together to form the handles of the bags, since I didn't have long enough pieces.

Room inside for carrying all kinds of stuff.

Side view.

Here is another Winslow Market Tote I made~

Bag empty.

I filled it up so it would stand nicely.

Side view.

Full of stuff this bag stands up nicely.

Sewing the material wasn't difficult, but cutting it was a bit tricky as this material can slide a bit. You could press the nylon with an iron because after all this material does get a lot of heat from the burners of the hot air balloon in order to get lift for the balloon when flying them. It was rewarding making something out of scraps and keeping large pieces of this material out of the landfill, as I am sure this stuff won't decompose at all.

Pin It Now!