In Your Words: My Little Gems' Gym Bags/Designing with Bleach

The thread was flying,

the needle bobbing,

and last minute preparations for the day's blog hop were keeping me in a stir all week and into the night! 

In fact, I was in such a rush I even threaded my machine needle with my bobbin thread! 

Now that is a new one on me!!

And believe me I have done some doozies in the past! 

Just last week shopping in Costco with Linda (yes, Linda who is our blog hop leader and my sister) I walked off with the wrong shopping cart! 

It went unnoticed until Linda wanted to know where her Nutella was and... where were my HDMI cables?

Trust me... life's a trip!
Never a dull moment. 

It is all worth it to be able to share my little gems' gym bags!

My little gems are my eleven grandchildren.  (That makes me sound so old!)

This Valentine's day they will be receiving their own personalized gym bag

with a few little surprises inside....

nine bags completed!  Two more to go.

So my contribution to our blog hop today are the little gym bags with some fun words

bleached and embellished.

Designing with Clorox Pen and fabric marker!

Here are the guidelines for this project:

1. Do a time bleach test on a sample of your fabric to decide how long to leave the bleach.  I cut several 1" squares and squeezed a little bleach on each and rinsed one at a time in 10 minute intervals. 
2. For the bag cut two panels 15"(or 14) x 18" (I got four bags from one yard of 60" wide cotton duck)
3. Press each section onto the waxy side of freezer paper to stabilize during bleaching.
4. Design the fabric with the Clorox pen using the narrow tip side. Squeeze gently and evenly, moving as smoothly as possibly.   
5. Watch the clock and rinse at the appropriate time previously decided in the bleach test. Gently remove from the freezer paper.
6. Add baking soda liberally to the wash tub of cool rinse water or you can sprinkle baking soda directly onto the bleached area and then rinse.
7.  Rinse in cool water until all the bleach is removed.
8. Lay the fabric on an old towel. Roll the fabric into it and gently squeeze.  Open it up, remove the panel from the towel. Lay flat to dry. 
9. Once dry.  Go back into the design using a Fabric Sharpie marker and embellish with more details.  The fun continues!
10. NOTE:  Pictured below, way below, are the Clorox types I used.  I used the Pen type to draw and then used the gel (toilet bowl cleaner) in a bowl for stamping the bleach.  The gel is more liquified and thus runs outside of the lines more.  But for those of you who do not have the Clorox pens you MIGHT try the gel in a bottle with a NARROW opening like a glue bottle. Be resourceful and let me know how it works.   I have not tried this myself but now I will have to!

The Gem Bag Construction

• Press down  1" on top edge of both pieces.
• Clean finish the top edges on both pieces (zig-zag or stitch a narrow edge)
• On sides about 2" down (where the casing will be open for the drawstrings) clean finish the edges.
• Stitch along the top, leaving the ends open.
• Sides and Bottom of bag
  
• Stitch sides starting at top stitching leaving casings open on the sides. 
• Stitch bottom and opposite side ending at stitching for casing.
• At bottom corners stitch diagonally creating a triangle 2" in both directions from the corner.  This will be for serve to lessen stress on grommets.
• Grommets
  
• 1/4" grommets are attached using manufacturer's directions.  Place in bottom corners inside of triangles.
• Drawstings
  
• 1/4" cording ( I found 1/4" clothesline rope in white at my local grocery store which is economical, attractive and sturdy. 100' for about $2)
• Cut two sections each about 2 yards long.  (Total 4 yards per bag.)
• Run the first cord through both casing returning to its starting place.  Pull cord ends down to the grommet and run both ends through the grommet and knot ends together to keep them secure. 
• Second cord will start on the opposite side as the first cord, run through both casing and returning to where it started. Pull cord down to grommet and secure
  with a knot. (The first cord starts and ends on one side.  The second cord starts and ends on the opposite side.  To close the bag pull the cords on both sides at the same time. )
 

Thank you, Madame Samm and Linda!  What a great idea! 

This has been a fun experience! 

Oh, I almost forgot! 

Leave a comment so I will have a record of your visit and enter you in my...

SURPRISE GIVEAWAY! 

The Winner will be announced on Jan. 24th!

Now, don't forget! 

Be sure to drop in on all the other participating blogs for today. 

Wednesday, January 9

Kathy's Quilts (Kathy W.)

Sunshine Quilting (Martina S.)

Sew Incredibly Crazy (Amy)

Quilt Doodle Doodles (Cindy S.)

Doodling in My Mind (YOU ARE HERE  Darla)

I Like to Quiltblog (Bente)

Michelle's Romantic Tangle (Michelle M.)

Grammie Q's (Charlotte M.)

Dancing Moon (Carla B.)

(Betty V.) at “that other blog”

The Fuzzy Hat Quilter (Laura Ann)

Sing Out Loud...Swing High....Watch Ants Crawl..

Find the Artist who's inside of you!

See you in the blogs!

Darla