Stash Bust: Zippered Bags
I had a roller derby tournament this past weekend where I was a Crew Head. As a Crew Head, I have about 12 people working on a my crew and it's sort of customary for the Crew Head to bring small gifts or mementos for their crew. The tournament was called Clover Cup I just so happened to have a random pile of clover themed fabric scraps from a kids St Patrick's Day camp project I did a few years ago. Scraps that I figured I would never use again seeing as how I don't really celebrate St Patrick's Day nor do I know anyone who is super into Irish culture to use it for gifts. I was really just holding on to this fabric because I'm a hoarder and was CONVINCED it would come it handy one day. Well...here was my moment! Hoarding validated!
The problem was because these were scraps from a kids craft project, the clover fabric was really cut to pieces. I really didn't want to have to spend a bunch of money on this so I needed something that I could incorporate the clover fabric in small pieces. Hoping to put my newfound quilting skills to the test, I found this great tutorial from The Sewing Chickthat I thought was perfect for what I was working with. I had so much miscellaneous fabric in my stash that the only thing I ended up needing to purchase was pink zippers!
I love this little bag and this tutorial is amazing and comprehensive, but what I didn't take into consideration is how many little tiny pieces of fabric I was going to have to cut out! This bag requires 32 total pieces of fabric plus adjusting the length of zipper. Making a few bags would be a piece of cake, but I was making 20 so I could have a few for my crew, a few extras as gifts, and a buffer incase I messed some up. That's a lot of cutting and a lot of sewing! I definitely learned a ton though.
Even though I thought making so many of these was going to kill me, what's funny is I actually think I might end up making more with different fabrics and saving them as ready to go gifts for the holidays. While I'm pumped I got to make so many awesome things with my scraps, I don't know if I should be happy or concerned with my hoarding that I could make 20 matching bags with fabric I already have???
I mixed in zebra and flamingo themed fabric with the clovers because officials can't get enough zebra and flamingo swag. I really loved the the overall look of the bag and I think my crew loved them too. 
I finished these all about a week and a half ago and I haven't made anything since partially because of time and partially because I kinda wore myself out with these. My back and my patience can only handle hunching over a sewing machine for so long. I have some more plans for scraps that I hope to get around to this weekend!