Things got a bit out of hand in December, what with me deciding to give out table runners as gifts to friends and ending up making six, the daughter who on December 12 declared it would be nice to get a scarf for Christmas (she got 3/4 of a scarf, I can’t knit that fast with work and everything else) and other random holiday preparations.

But there was enough downtime in the last few days to finish my project for the Sew Jo’s Fall Mystery Challenge.

I’m glad I took a photo before all the panels were put together

Because it’s hard to really take a good photo now

I made a handle from the green fabric matching the tabs but couldn’t get it through the cord stoppers. The closure really needs the cord stoppers so I ended up using elastic cord. Doesn’t look as nice but it’s functional so all good.

Contains spoilers for those in Ottawa area

A local sewing store is doing a fun sewing mystery challenge. You get a kit that contains fabric and you have until early January to sew something using only those colours. You can add different fabrics - heck, you don’t even have to use fabric provided! - but only colours from the kit are allowed. They can be in different values but no other colour (or black/white) can be added.

The best part is that you can sew whatever you want. A garment, house decor, a toy, anything! Participants are encouraged to use variety of techniques which makes it even more fun.

Items will be up for public voting on the store website and on social media and at the end of January the winner will get a gift certificate.

Spoiler below

The colour combination is beautiful

Now - what to make?

I decided to make a project bag based on Japanese Komebukuro bag. I made one last year as a gift to a friend with patchwork and embroidery and it looked really nice.. I hope to use four panels to showcase various techniques.

Stash diving produced a nice assortment of additional fabrics. I love how these match.

At first I was going with leaves and flowers theme (2 panels with leaves, two with flowers) but over time decided that leaves would fit better with the time of the year. There will be a few flowers here and there though 😊

Choosing motives for panels motivated me to explore appliqué (which I’ve only tried once), reverse appliqué, and use of positive and negative space. Those rabbit holes were long and deep but I emerged knowing what my panels will look like.

Planning stage

Best to practice on something small first. My first reverse appliqué, using Heat and Bond.

Yay! It worked!