Hand-Stamped Scrunchy Tote

I am so in love with my latest creation that I had to forego the normal waiting period (of waaaay too long) to share it with you right away:

My niece turned eight yesterday. Her favorite color is purple and she has been begging for a scrunchy-style bag since I made one for myself in June and another for Debra in July (neither of which I have shared yet... but I will round up some pictures to share soon).

I put off starting this project until yesterday, thinking that I had some great purple fabric in my stash. And... I didn't. Just plain ol' purple. Rather than spend the time and money to run to the store, I decided to exercise my creative muscle that has been getting soft lately. ;)

craft paint + egg carton cups + bottle caps

 (plus a lid from a tub of frosting as a paint tray)

equals...

a fantastic stamped fabric that I couldn't be more pleased with. 

The bottle lids were from a water bottle, a gallon of milk (which is now just sitting lidless in the fridge... small sacrifice for awesome fabric ;), and one of the small bottles of juice. I cut out three individual cups from an egg carton (already empty and in the recycling... I only rob so much from the fridge!) and hot-glued the lids on, two right side up to make the solid circles and one upside down to make the circle outline. You could do without the egg carton cups, but it was SO helpful to have a little more grip on the "stamp".

I watered the craft paint down a little bit as I stamped (maybe 5 drops per medium dollop of paint?). Once the paint was dry, I ironed the fabric to heat-set the paint (since I didn't use fabric paint -- I've never bothered and it doesn't seem to make a huge difference until it's been washed a LOT).

To make the bag, I followed the basics of this tutorial from Nae of Nae Chic. (I followed the tutorial exactly for my first scrunchy bag -- it's a great tutorial for a great bag!). My outer pieces (that I stamped) were about 13"x22", and the interior pieces ended up being 13" square. I also stamped fabric for 3 interior rectangular flat pockets, which I neglected to take a photo of.  The finished bag is just the right size for the Highlights puzzle books I had picked up for her -- or another magazine, notebook, coloring book, text book, etc.

The handle is an old necktie I had in my stash. It was part of a tie skirt I made in high school that I had started to dismantle to remake in an, er, mom size (hips! who knew?) so I had already cut it down to about 16" long and undone the stitching to remove the stabilizer inside.

To make it suitable for a bag handle, I ironed in some fusible fleece (because I had a scrap that fit just right) and sewed a straight stitch down the middle to re-secure the tie in proper shape. I sewed the cut edge into the seam when I sewed the interior and exterior of the bag together, and then I attached the other end (the triangle end) by hand, using a big purple button and purple embroidery floss.

I love it, and my niece was thrilled with it! I can't wait until my own kiddos give such glowing approval of my handiwork :)

I know I've been mostly absent lately, but I am still here and doing all sorts of fun things to share with you. First and foremost, I am SO excited for next week - I am the guest for Point of View this month. The theme is Pinterest, so I finally got around to finishing one of my first Pinterest projects. I hope you'll love it! Tune back in next Friday for the reveal :)


Thanks for reading!