Our good fairy scheme is up and running again at school; mine has visited my classroom at various times leaving a box of shortbread, a knitting roll for all my knitting needles, a little shower gel and body lotion set and today a Crunchie bar appeared.  Whoever it is, they’re very sneaky and I haven’t got a clue who it is!  The gifts have certainly put a smile on my face, my good fairy is very generous!  It’s time for me to spread some more happiness and give another gift to my ‘Cinderella’ so I decided on a shopping bag.

This is a great stash buster – it’s good for using up a bit of fabric that you’ve used for another project.  I had this fabric, originally from Ikea, which needed using up.

Cut out a piece of fabric 47cm x 75cm, and two strips 70cm x 7cm.

For the straps you need to fold the patterned side in on each of the 70cm x 7cm strips along their length and sew a seam.  Turn the tubes the right way and iron so that the seam is along the centre – you can see it in the middle strap above.  Sew the ends of the tube closed; this helps to keep it in shape when you sew it all together, you won’t see these seems so they don’t need to be too neat.

Iron a 2cm hem along one 75cm length of the large piece of fabric.  Mark at the following points shown below.

Pin the edges of the straps at the marks – one strap goes from 10cm to 24cm, the other from 44cm to 58cm, as shown below; if you fold them under the hem and over the hem as shown it will be stronger.  Sew along the seam, I tend to sew along the top and the bottom for strength.

Now fold the right sides of the bag together and sew along the bottom and side seams, I used my 2cm measurement to keep it neat.  Turn the bag the right side out and wrap it up ready for leaving on Cinderella’s desk!