Shopping Bags

At Thanksgiving, my sister Tammy--the namesake for the blog--wanted to give all the females a "gag gift"--which was just something inexpensive. I am not sure where she came up with the idea, but she took some inexpensive reusable shopping bags from TJ Maxx and embroidered the person's first initial on it. It was doing these bags that she became so enamored with the Curlz MT font. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the original bags and I was thinking my sister might post some of the pictures, but alas she is busy with grades and such--and maybe a little technically challenged.

Anyhow I decided to do a couple of bags myself for some people. We found some bags at Bed, Bath and Beyond that were fairly inexpensive--and I had a gift card that I had gotten using my Discover Card cash back rewards.

The first I did was for my friend Rebecca. I chose the teal blue thread, because I thought it would stand out nicely. In the end, I am not as excited about the color choice, but I am real happy with the size. The letter is about 6 inches tall total which stands out well on the bag which is fairly big itself. The bags are about 16 inches by 20 inches (and about 7 inches wide). Last year's bags evidently had the logo on the bottom of the bag. This year's bags' have the log in the bottom right hand corner.

The second bag was for Rebecca's Aunt Cynthia. Last year, when Roland and Rebecca came over to open gifts and decorate a gingerbread house, they brought Aunt Cynthia who was visiting from Michigan. I was happy so she decided to come over and I gave her a copy of the Pink Ribbon Farkle I had put together for my nephews and nieces (which is a separate blog post to come in the future). I decided I would pre-emptively make sure I had a gift in case she decided to come along the year. I really liked this bag, but I wish I would have positioned the "C" a little higher so that it was above the bird instead of through its head. I also love the variegated purple thread. The other thing I did was use a satin special stitch instead of the Satin because I was afraid the stitches would snag. I didn't think about it when I did Rebecca's bag and when I noticed how big the stitches were, I decided to change the next one.

Since I wasn't sure if I was going to see Cynthia at my house or at Roland and Rebecca's when I go up there to help make pierogies, I decided to also make a bag for Rebecca's mother Dianne since she will be there to make pierogies. I decided to use a variegate brown/gold on the bag. I would have preferred to have less brown and a little more shades of gold, but I still like it. I don't know if any of the women will like them, but I am not that concerned as I know a few secrets about women--they love to spin when they dance, when they complain they don't want a solution they just want someone to listen and agree, and women love stuff with their initials on it. Don't ask me why these things are true, but my experience says they are--many, many sisters and over 11 years of ballroom dance lessons.

I was concerned about embroidering on the bags as I thought the design would weaken the material. But the bags are really tough and there are some kind of fiber strands woven under the plastic coating that hold really well. I think this is a really cool idea and I wish I would have made more for some friends. I may make some more if I go home for Christmas.