THE QUILTED ENVELOPE BAG

I used Sari silks for making these as I like the effect you get on the quilting. You can use cotton of course, or anything else, basically anything will do. Depends on the 'look' you want.

So here are the pieces, pinned to a piece of wadding and backing fabric which you wont see when the bag is finished so use something cheap and cheerful, some have muslin behind, some have nothing bar the wadding, yes you can quilt just like that...

I went a bit mad as you can see, but I use these as a way of testing my quilting patterns...

First you do some wavy lines, across and back in one continuous line, this is to give you some 'borders' for your quilting patterns...

Now you do your quilting, anything that takes your fancy, just fill each space you made with the previous step, try something you have never done before, it is fun, you may find something you really like and can practice here before you put it on your precious quilt...

This one has voile over the sari silk...

This is one I did with no backing fabric, this is the view of the wadding side for you...

Sorry, there are a few of these...

Another just showing the wadded side...

When you have filled the spaces, you place a piece of lining fabric over the right side, stitch almost all the way round, turn through, poke those corners out, then stitch as close to the edge as you can, using a matching or mono filament thread, seal the opening as you go, you end up with a flat piece of quilting...

Fold in half one way then the other and crease, bring one corner up place on creased line, bring another up, then join these two together, I hold them together and sew with a wide zigzag with mono filament thread, when you lay it flat again, the thread opens out for the edges to lay flat.. try it, it does work...

Then fold the other corner up, pinch it up together and stitch as before...

Ta da...

Here are the others I made with the samples up above...

I used different coloured threads in the different sections on this one, just for a change...

This one I used two different colours of sari silk, one half peach the other pale pink...

For some reason this is showing as blue, it is black, I didn't do much quilting, just double lines, then I sewed a red bead in the little squares those lines made, just for a change...

Yet more I made a while back...

Not sure which is my favourite, I need to make a Yellow one then I can decide. Which is your favourite?

***************************