The Monthly Make: Sewing Ruffle Bags and Book Sleeves

A little late on this post. It was due on Monday, but that’s okay! Life has hit me hard, and even though this post is a blend of past monthly makes (see April’s and July’s), I’m so excited to share that I finally feel like I’m getting the hang of these two patterns. So, without further ado, let’s just jump right into these ruffle bags and book sleeves.

Table of Contents

The Inspiration

As most of you know, I’ve been working hard to build up a stockpile of sewing items, not just to get better, but in hopes of making things for friends and family, and to potentially sell a few at autumn and holiday markets over the next few months. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for years, because sewing doesn’t just help me learn and stay relevant with crafting and creating, it’s also a tremendous help with my anxiety.

So my biggest inspiration is bringing down my stress levels, especially since summer tends to be my most stressful time of year.

The Fabric

For the book sleeves, I found a super fun design that could only be found at the late, great JoAnn’s. I thought this was going to be an original piece but turns out Michaels‘ bought a huge portion of JoAnn’s fabrics so I was able to find the fabric on their site very easily. It’s absolutely darling, with its autumn beverages and foods. Loads of donuts and pumpkins everywhere, just as it should be!

The ruffle bags are all made from fabric I saved from the landfill, either from an estate sale or the thrift store. I’m so happy to give these all a second life, especially the vintage ones. I really love seeing these designs come back into fashion, or just being used in a cool, quirky new way.

The Process

I created my own pattern for these book sleeves. It’s been a long time coming, and it’s really not as hard as you’d think to come up with your own designs and ideas. It’s a lot harder to turn those ideas into reality, though.

For the ruffle bags, as you know, I’m still using the design I bought off of Etsy, but I’ve also started to tweak it in certain spots. There are a few things I don’t love about it, though I know a lot of other people will. The first is the adhesive batting. I’d like it to be a thicker material. The second is how high up the zipper sits from the rest of the bag. I wish it were more flush with the ruffles. I’d love to make this design uniquely mine at some point, and I’d also love to sew in another line on the pocket for a pen or pencil. It’s so cute though, and I love just about everything else about it.

The book sleeves have been a whole other story. I actually call them Book Buddies, though I know everyone else calls them book sleeves. Anyway, this past week I was able to sit down and build out a bigger sleeve, and then a tiny one for my friend Shanna. She asked me to make these for her roughly three years ago. Embarrassingly enough, I found the fabric during my move and was determined to finally make them for her. She’d completely forgotten, so handing them over this past weekend was a treat. I also ended up making her a bookmark, which was anything but perfect. She was appreciative regardless.

The Final Results

Starting with the book sleeves: I actually messed up on her smaller one due to incorrect measurements. While it does fit a paperback, it fits her eReader and a notebook a little less snugly. Either way, both came out really well made, and they’re perfect for her daily commute into the city. For that, I’m happy to have made her something she’ll love and use.🥰

The ruffle bags are getting better and better with each make as I tweak every single one. None are uniform yet, but I’ll get there. I love that every single bag is different and slightly unique, whether by design or by fabric. I’d love to make a quilted fabric using up all my scraps and then sew a few bags out of that. I think that would be so fun, though one I’d have to charge more for, since quilting is a lot of work!

As always, friends, thank you so much for reading. I love doing these monthly makes. I have a lot of blog posts headed your way for the new season, and even more for the holidays. Let’s hope I can finally get ahead and start building a real backlog.

xoxo