New Chair Bags

About 10 years ago my mom and I made some chair bags.

 

They had a couple of large pockets and even had small, thin pockets to hold pencils.

 

But as you can see, they are really starting to fall apart! 

 

I desperately need some new chair bags so I asked my mom to help me make them...again.

 

This time I wanted to make some simpler bags, kinda like the book covers everyone is using for chair bags.

 

I went to the fabric store and purchased 3 yards of fabric for my 20 bags.

 

I know...that's not enough!

 

I realized this once I got to my moms.

 

I had it all calculated out before I went to the store and completely forgot those calculations after having been down every isle 3 times looking for the perfect fabric.

 

With the amount of fabric I had we figured we could get 10 bags out of it.

 

I wanted to maximize every piece of that fabric so I told suggested to her that we make each bag an inch shorter.

 

That way we could get an extra 2 bags out of the fabric and not have any waste.

 

PERFECT!

 

My mom started cutting out the bags using the new measurements.

 

She sewed one to make sure that it would be big enough and to make sure she understood how I wanted them made.

 

All was good!

 

{Excuse my hand. I forgot to have my mom hold one up for me to take a picture of it}

 

As she began to sew, I started cutting out the rest of the bags.

 

To save some time she told me to go to the store and get the rest of the fabric and she would finish cutting and sewing.

 

COOL!

 

I was gone for about an hour or so.

 

While at the store I was also looking for fabric for my teacher stool (I still haven't found the perfect fabric for that).

 

The whole time I was gone I kept wondering how come she wasn't texting me?

 

Was she wondering what was taking so long?

 

Was she done and waiting?

 

NOPE!

 

When I got back I found her still in her sewing room sewing the bags.

 

Hmmmm????

 

Me: I thought you'd be done.

 

Mom: I would have been but I realized I had sewn them all the wrong way, so I enlisted the help of your dad to help me take them apart.

 

Me: Ummm, these are wrong mom!

 

Mom: What? Oh my!  That's what your dad kept saying.

 

Me: Didn't you look at the first one you did?

 

Mom: Oh, I forgot about that one. Whoops! Maybe dad will help us take them apart again?

 

My dad laughed, said that's what he kept telling her and that my mom and I could take them apart, he would pass this time.

 

Can't blame him!

 

While taking them apart I made the comment that there are 12, right?

 

Mom: 12???? I thought we could only get 10 out of the 3 yards?

 

Me: Remember, we changed the length so that we wouldn't have any left over fabric?

 

Mom: Whoops, I forgot that's what we decided to do. I only cut one out of the last section (going the opposite direction that the others were cut out)!

 

Oh My!!!!

 

Good news! We were able to get one more out of that cut piece and pieced together the last one with leftover fabric from the new fabric I bought.

 

All being said, I got my new chair bags.

 

ALL 20 of them!

 

Man, did we get some good laughs that day!

 

I painted large numbers on them.

 

 

I LOVE them!

 

I love them so much I decided to make some new book bags.

 

Uh Oh....no worries!

 

Remember those old chair bags?

 

 

I reused that fabric for my book bags and attached some black straps.

 

Once again, mom agreed to help.

 

This time I did all the cutting and pinning.

 

My mom was in charge of sewing...and that's all!

 

I didn't leave her alone in the room this time...not even for a potty break!

 

{We chose not to put a hem on any of the bags, just a serged edge}

 

I plan on painting the large numbers on them to match the chair bags.

 

One last thing...

 

While at my parents I mentioned to my dad that I needed something to house my big books in.

 

Look what he whipped up while we were sewing.

 

 

He's pretty amazing!

 

Now all I have to do is paint it black.

 

Well, I guess I'm off to get my painting on!