Stringing Selvages--Sixth Finish for the 1st Quarter 2021

Lining and outer fabric ready for assembly

I've been collecting selvages for years. I've saved selvage examples to my Pinterest board. I've made a couple ruler totes, a lot of pincushions and a block with selvages. I haven't made a quilt using selvages. 

I've pieced the selvages on a muslin foundation. The foundation works well; but, it makes the product bulkier. When I constructed the door block, I glued basted the selvages. That process worked well. Glue basting also allowed me to line up the selvages and keep them from wiggling when I stitched them. Glue basting takes time.

In the Saturday workshop class, we pieced selvages together and made selvage fabric. The teacher used a fabric foundation. Instead of using muslin as a foundation or glue basting the selvages, I used newsprint as my foundation. This was the first time that I had pieced selvages on newsprint. 

My method, when string piecing, is to place a strip in the center of the foundation and add pieces on either side of that strip. This method is the most efficient because I can sew twice as many pieces before moving from the piecing station to the press station. 

View of the top of the bag

The Saturday Workshop teacher, however, suggested starting the piecing at one corner of the block. I tried this method. It was easy to position the woven edge of the selvage over the previous piece and topstitch. During class, I pieced four blocks that were 7 1/2 inches square. Removing the paper was easy. I would  repeat this process. 

With my selvage fabric, I decided to make a simple bag. At a virtual retreat last fall, in one of the activities, we were given a zipper, access to a handout, lining fabric and a demonstration of how to make a simple bag.  I decided to use that red zipper in this project.

In the top photo you can see the lining pieces with pockets and the outer pieces. I approached this bag making project with no pattern and no directions. I picked up a bunch of tips in the process. For example, the pockets should be a couple inches up from the bottom of the bag. Otherwise, the pockets end up on the bottom of the bag. 

The lining needs to be between a half inch and an inch shorter than the outer bag. Otherwise, the lining puddles in the bottom of the bag. The zipper placket needs to be a minimum of one inch shorter than the width of the bag. Otherwise, the zipper placket will be too long! 

View of the side of the bag

The seam finish that encloses the zipper placket edges needs to be wider than 1 1/2 so that it can be doubled. Next time, I'd try a 2 1/2 wide strip. These were painful lessons because I spent a lot of time ripping and resewing. I could have abandoned the project; but, I wanted to see it finished.

Regarding the zipper placket, I made a second placket. I decided I could use the first placket in a second bag. In this case, it was easier to start again as opposed to ripping the stitches to trim the placket a couple inches. I used leftover scraps from the previous Camelback Carryall bag projects for the pockets and some of the trim pieces. 

In the end, I finished! I like it. It is about ten inches wide by six inches tall. I used about half a yard of scraps/selvages, a scrap of wool batting and two of my grandmother's stash zippers. The green one was marked 55 cents! The blue one wasn't in a package. It was also a zipper that would have been put in the side of a garment. It worked great for the pocket.

I have now used negative 1.5 yards of fabric from my stash. This is my sixth finish for the quarter. Finishing the three Camel Carryall bags and this selvage bag was goal number one on my March monthly list.