By Christina Lane

It’s that time of year again!  Time to think of gifts for family, friends and co-workers.  This is the time of year I think about which of my photos I can gift or what crafts I can make for gifts.  When I’m able to incorporate the two, it’s not just a fun gift, but personal to the receiver as well.  That just makes it extra special.  Over the years I’ve used printable fabric to make gifts for family members, and they are always a big hit.  Printing on fabric is pretty easy. There are several methods of going about it, but my favorite is to pick up a pack of printable fabric at the craft store.  It’s all ready to go and gets me to the ‘making’ part that much quicker.

This project can be made either with a ready-made bag, or one you make yourself.  In this post I’ve included instructions for making a simple bag on a sewing machine, but if you have a store bought bag, feel free to skip to the end for instructions on attaching your photo.

To make this tote, you will need 1/2 yard of heavy/decorator weight fabric, along with general sewing tools.  Throughout this project 1/4″ seam allowances are used.  Edge stitching is 1/8″.

Cut Fabric. Body: Cut 1 – 27.5″ x 13″; Handles: Cut 2 – 3″ x 13″.

Sew Handles. Fold fabric in half lengthwise, right sides together and stitch along length. Press seam open with your finger nail or pressing tool and turn right side out (I like to pin a safety pin to one end and push it through the tube to the other open end).  Press handle, making sure seam is along the center of one side.  Edge stitch along both sides of both handles.  Fold both ends of each handle 1″ to back side.  Pin to hold in place.

Sew Body. With right sides together, sew sides of bag.  Use a ruler to measure down about 3/4″ from the top of the bag and score all along the top, use either a scoring tool or the back side of a butter knife.  Fold top down at scored line and press with a very hot iron.  Open up and fold top raw edge of bag to fold and press.  Your raw edge should now be encased in the fold.  Starting at side seam, edge stitch around top of bag.  Turn right side out and press side seams.  Starting at bottom of bag, sew along one side, 1/4″ from the side of the bag, stopping at the top edge-stitching.  Repeat for the other side.  This encases your raw edges on the inside of the bag and prevents fraying as well as adds more stability to the bag.

Assembling Bag.  Pin handles to exterior of bag with right side of handles facing out, matching the raw edge of each side of the handle with the top of the bag.  The outside edge of the handle should be in 3″ from each side.  Top stitch the handle in place, first stitching the top, an 1/8″ from the top of the bag, beginning and ending at your edge stitching on the handle.  Keeping your needle down, rotate your bag and stitch on the diagonal to the opposite corner, stopping 1/8″ from the bottom of the handle.  Rotate your bag and stitch along the bottom of the handle and then back up the other diagonal.  Repeat for the other side of the handle.  Flip your bag over, and pin your other handle in place, matching it with the handle already sewn down.  Again, top stitch as you did with the handle on the other side.

Printing Your Photo + Attaching

Supplies Needed: Inkjet fabric sheet, Heat & Bond Lite, scrap of lightweight white fabric (optional).

Printing on inkjet fabric sheets is pretty simple: load into printer paper tray and print your photo.  Of course you’ll want to read the manufacturer’s instructions, but I like to let my printer know i’ll be printing on “thicker” paper and then I just leave the printing quality at “Normal”.  I wait about a minute to let it dry and then I put it in a bowl under cold running water for two minutes.  I let it dry, give it a quick press and it’s ready to use.  I use both color and black and white images, but find that the black and white always look the best.

To get the most out of my sheet, I like to head into Photoshop and lay out my photos with seam allowances on an 8.5″ x 11″ canvas.  I find I’m able to fit two 4×6″ photos on a sheet, or several smaller photos for other projects.  Either way, I always find photos to fill the space so I don’t have any waste.  If you just have the one photo to print, consider making fabric labels with your name and the date on the remainder of the sheet.  For this project I used 4×6″ photos.

After printing and prepping your photos, cut them out with an ample boarder width.  Trim a piece of Heat & Bond Lite to photo size and fuse to back.  Peel off paper backing and fuse to your scrap of fabric.  Once again cut another piece of Heat & Bond Lite to size and fuse to back of fabric.  This last step is optional, but if your bag is a darker fabric, you may find that it peeks through your printed image.   Trim the edges of your photo as desired (one I trimmed with a pinking blade on my rotary cutter and the other I used scissors to create a scalloped border).   Once again peel the paper backing away and position on your bag as desired; fuse in place.  Embellish as you like, or leave it as is.

For the dog bag I just left it as is, and did not use a fabric backing.  For the bird bag I did back with scrap fabric and stitched around the edge with my sewing machine.  There are so many ways to personalize a bag with photos.  Create small bags for children with a photo of themselves to designate their items.  Create a bag for a favorite pet to hold their toys when traveling.  Designate a bag for library books, using a photo of books or your local library building.  The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Christina Lane

I'm Christina and I live in soggy Washington State near Portland, OR. My blog, www.sometimescrafter.blogspot.com/, is a creative journal, meant to keep me inspired and crafting. I enjoy many crafts: sewing, quilting, crochet, knitting, drawing, photography, embroidery, and the list goes on. I love a good book (romance), northwest wines (Oregon Blossom), the beach (Manzanita, OR), a good pen (ballpoint) and most especially my husband and our little guy (Aaron + Brice). You can see more of my photography at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zooraves/.

WEBSITE

http://www.sometimescrafter.blogspot.com