Gabbie's Grove: A ChrisW Design Pattern

Christine of ChrisW Designs has designed another bag for her Easy Street Collection of bags and this one is called Gabbie's Grove. Easy Street Collection patterns have fewer pattern pieces and the bag designs are faster and easier to sew, compared to Christine's other bag patterns. Even though these bags are easier to sew they are still loaded with great design features! I loved testing this bag!

This bag can be worn across the body with an adjustable strap. You can also take off the adjustable strap and carry it like a clutch and it can be converted to a backpack as well by looping the adjustable strap through the top carry handle. It can also be carried as a tote bag by the two handles that are on the front of the bag. Such versatility in one bag! I am keeping this bag for myself because it will be a great bag to use for quilt shows and a day out shopping. As I shop, and the bag gets full, it will be able to hold a lot.

The bag is made using a foam stabilizer so when opened up into a tote the shape of the bag will stand up nicely and not flop over.

See testers versions here. Newsletter subscribers only can get the SALE price through March 17 (Australian Eastern Standard time) get 20% off the pattern, but only on Christine's website here. But you need to subscribe to her newsletter to get the discount and get the code.


The Celestial Fabric seemed a perfect choice for me with not only moons, but suns and stars too.

I used a Celestial fabric I had for a long time and a faux cork fabric, called Uncorked that is a quilting cotton that is made to look like cork. I love the look of the faux cork and it comes in several colors. I got 3 colors to use on future bags too.

The back of the bag has a phone/key pocket.

A grab handle, which you can loop the adjustable strap through to convert it to a backpack.

The front of the bag folds over when wearing as a cross body bag or on the shoulder.

A zippered pocket is located on the front of the bag under the folded over front.

The front opens up into a tote bag and can be carried by the shorter handles when you have it full of  goodies from your day of shopping. 

Inside the bag. The bag snaps closed with 2 magnetic snaps, so when it is folded over everything stays nicely inside the bag. And as long as you don't stuff it too much when fully opened, you can snap it closed in this position too.

I added a divided slip pocket inside the bag to hold a couple of pens and a pad of paper.

Opened up showing the back

Opened up showing the front.

Front folded over. 

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Fabric Wrapped Bag

My new batik bag. I love how it turned out! I added handles, a flap with Velcro closure and triple-stacked buttons, plus a hook to hold my keys.

I started wrapping these fabric strips around some clothesline over a year ago. I wrapped most of the amount I needed and then wasn't sure what I wanted to make out of it. So it sat in my closet. But recently I got a new bloggie friend, Marisa, and when I went to check out her blog I found her Bali Bag that was so beautiful, I thought aha, that's what I will make is a bag. My method is a bit different than Marisa's and the style of the bag is a bit different too, but both are fabric wrapped around clothesline. I tried the wrapping method that Marisa did on hers (she has video links) and I thought it was harder to wrap and harder to sew without all the seams showing. I gave up on that method and went back to way I have always done mine. Plus I could use up a lot of narrow batik fabric scraps the way I wrap and I still have bags of scraps left. So I will be experimenting and making some more fabric wrapped goodies until I get tired of making them and then maybe I'll get out of my quilting slump!

Inside the bag. I just love batik fabrics.

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Another Bag

This bag was fast and easy to make. It's from the book entitled, Sew What You Love: the easiest, prettiest projects ever, by Tanya Whelan.
My local library has this book and it's the bag on the cover of the book. I found a couple things in the book I liked, but for me personally there wasn't enough projects for me to want to buy the book, so I am glad my library had it. If you have young children, you might like making all the clothes and toys for children that she has in this book. It is a nice looking book with spiral binding to keep it flat when it's opened and a nice pocket in the back of the book where the pages of patterns are kept.

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