Renewed: Embellished laundry bag for my sister

ometimes, I take months to formulate and execute my creative projects, only to discover that, at the end, I hate the look, the idea, or the execution, or simply the time it took to make something very simple. And sometimes, it just works – there is a raw material or a starting point, there is a perfect idea and the thing is finished in no time. And I’m happy with the results. I wonder if these things happen randomly or if I gravitate towards certain types of  creative activities that allow me to move from idea to finished product in a matter of hours or days.

Some time ago, my sister got a gift that was wrapped in a fabric tote of sorts. Brilliant blue with a yellow drawstring. Here’s what it looked like:

Took me a little while to figure out the fabric that it was made of. It’s a non-woven fabric with a velvety feel. Some stores have reusable bags made of similar fabrics and some types of fusible interfacing also feel similar. I don’t have a close-up picture, but a fellow blogger does:

From she-wears-flowers.com

And finally, eureka! The name of this glorious, low-maintenance fabric is non-woven polypropylene. How’s that for a mouthful?

The bag was a perfect size for a laundry bag, but it desperately needed ventilation. I thought about some sort of lacy, filigree design and was prepared to painstakingly cut dozens of little squares to recreate something like this. But, in the end, I found a more feminine and fluid design to draw and cut. Here’s the inspiration:

Metal Leaf Pendant from Overstock.com

Using a Sharpie, I drew the leaf outlines freehand on the inside of the bag. Then, using my manicure scissors (was it completely silly of me?), I cut out the leaves. Here is the result:

Another view:

And here’s what the finished laundry bag looks like:

What types of projects come to you quickly and are finished quickly as well? Let me know and happy crafting!