Garment Bag Tutorial

Are you planning a car trip this summer?

I got to take a road trip to Colorado with my 

brother Dave and his wife, Michele.

I love pulling out my Vera Bradley bags.

These have been gifted to me over the years.

I had two issues. 

My Java Blue is discontinued and 
I have enough pieces to get me to the lake for a few days.

I don't have enough for a week's vacation.
 I didn't want to spend retail for the garment bag even if I could find it.

I made a garment bag way back in the 80's. The country blue and mauve just wasn't  working for me anymore.

 But. I figured if I did it once I could do it again.
I got 1 yard of Diamond Double Faced Quilt. It ranges in 
price from $9.99 -$19.99. I chose brown and it is 44 inches wide.
Joann Fabrics has sales all the time. 
Note: I wish I got 1 1/2 yards I don't know what I was thinking.
I also got the 28 inch Sport separating plastic zipper. for $3.99.
I  also got a short spool of coordinating ribbon for the tie.

The brown coordinates well with the brown background of Java Blue.

Some of my newer pieces are in Color Me Coral. It has also been discontinued.

Our old luggage starting to disintegrate because we stored it in the attic. 
When we get some new luggage, I will try to find brown.

I love it so much and I didn't take pictures during so I got some black to 
make one for Rebekah. I got 4 feet of fabric, I wanted hers a little longer than mine so she could take a dress somewhere.
Lay out the fabric and bring the selvage ends into the center. (The selvage edge is the finished edge on each side. Not the edge cut at the fabric store.)

You will sew your zipper to each end of the selvage.

 Note the foot in the picture. Nice!

Close up of zipper.

 I would look on You Tube for a zipper tutorial if you haven't put one in before.

 With the right side in, sew the rest of the seam from the bottom of the zipper to the bottom of the bag.

 Sew along the bottom edge of your garment bag.

 Take a hanger to draw the seam line for the hanger. You will want it angle out from the center following the line of the top of a hanger.

  Trim excess fabric and sew seam closed.

  Turn it inside out and sew a coordinating length of ribbon to the top of the bag. You will use this to secure your hangers to the bag to keep them together.

 Roll the rest of the sleavage edge around the top and hem.
Enjoy your new bag.

 I thought I would get a few Vera Bradley pieces for her to go with this.

Dork that I am, I sent it home with her already without realizing I didn't get a good picture.
Here is the tutorial again.

This was not difficult at all if you have some sewing skills. 
I hope Rebekah enjoys hers. 
A Vera Bradley garment bag currently sells for $130.00. Of course it has all kinds of bells and whistles, but I like these just fine!
If I had it to do over again. I would get as many pieces of Vera Bradley at once. They are discontinuing patterns way to quickly to add it over time like I did.
Anyway...
Wouldn't these be cute to make for bridesmaids to hold their dresses?
How about as a gift for a graduate? 
Let me know if you make one.
Happy Travels!
Sprinkled with bags for travel,
Katie
Linking with,
Funky Junk Interiors
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
My 1929 Charmer Blog  
Craft-O-Maniac Monday

Living Room Tour

I haven’t showed you much of my living room.
Beware this post is heavy laden with pictures.

The light in here isn’t the best so it is very hard to photograph.
When I posted about my summer mantle I took about 50 pictures. Originally I was supposed to write about our spring mantle but I never got a single good shot of it in the spring. 


I have been trying to catch a few good mornings to take some pictures of this room. 
As you enter the front door the dining room is to the left and the stairs are directly across from the front door.

 Please excuse the dog paw. I didn't see her until I was editing. Those of you with dog, know how badly they want to help blog!

 Mr. Bill doesn't sit in his chair in this room so it gets piled with pillows.

Okay, everything is piled with pillows.

You might have been one of the three people to see a post about the love seat I pulled out of the trash one morning. I recovered it a few years ago.

 I've draped dropcloths over the brown to lighten it up. It is the first step toward a slipcover.

  I made the pillows with muslin and jute webbing.

  This table behind the loveseat is a unique, family piece. I will show more of it in another post. 

The view of the music nook from the couch. 
We had news this summer about the piano. Swamp Cooleritis from the old days has ruined it. 

Which leads us to the armoire. 

We have had this piece of furniture for eons.

I spied it in a little mom and pop antique store in the town where we were living.
Money was so tight back in those days that we bought it with our tax return shortly after we were new parents.

It was a whopping $225.00. 
We bought this piece to store the T.V. I didn't want the T.V. to be the focus of our family. I wanted it hidden away.
I think it worked. 
All three of our kids say they don't watch a lot of  T.V. :) 

  As a new blogger I took this picture. 
I can't tell you how tickled I was to find a picture with the T.V. on!!! Do you see the sock or something under the bench?
The doors are open almost all the time so it has to look cute inside.

I think I only close them for parties. 
You know what? 
I am not even sure I close them then.

 Mr. Bill put shelves in it. 
I needed places for knick knacks,
 ummm... I mean stereo components ;)
I wanted a neutral backdrop so I turned all the books around.
I moved the speakers from the top to the inside.

 

 Cream and white accessories as well as my new mulberry transferware platter are at home. My sis-in-law got me the platter for my birthday.

She is my partner on many an antique jaunt. I'm sure she has seen me pick up tons of purple plates. 
I am in love with it!!

Rebekah got me this little dog ornament for Christmas, just 10 days after we lost my beloved lap dog. How she found one to look like him, I don't know.  

Another broken clock. I love clocks. 

For the top, I took this birdcage that was destined for my favorite resale shop.

Now it sits on top with a cute wire basket and a 
fleur-de-lis that got schmooked with paint.

We got the mirror from Bill's mom. No one else wanted it because they thought it was too gaudy.
I proudly stated  that it wasn't too gaudy for me!

 The paint color is Softer Tan by Sherwin Williams. 
We did the tiling ourselves after the big flood. 
A pipe burst under the powder room sink. 
An inch of water and $13,000 in damage. 
We wanted Saltillo but it looked horrible in here ,so we went with a thicker grout line to get a similar effect.

I showed you some of my summer decor items, read about them 
I have a few more cute things on the other side to of the room.

 I got this old oil painting at an antique shop in Corpus Christi. 
You would think that they would be easier to find on the coast but cute vintage ocean inspired paintings are very hard to come by.This one looks like it is dated 1874. But I think it is 1974.
I'm sure the cute stork was one a nursery planter, but I don't care.

Vintage nursery planters make good decor for seasons or to round out a collection of something.
I am captivated by this shell encrusted box.

I hope you like the room. I am sure you are wondering how a person can live with so much junk!!
I tried to lighten up and pare down when we had our flood about 7 years ago. I just managed to refill it.

 
I am loving little hints of purple with the creams and whites.
I made stuff out of anything, two years ago I couldn't find purple fabric anywhere. Now I have started seeing it more.

 Excuse me while I go pack up a few knick-knacks.
If you would like, I'll come back and talk about some of the specific items. 
But... you might be so horrified at the number things in here, you won't be back.


Sprinkled with a room to live in,
Katie
Linking with,
The French Country Cottage 
Funky Junk Interiors