Mother Goose shopper

by Linda Theil

I loved this fabric from the moment I saw it on the Missouri Star Quilt Co. site, so I ordered a yard, even though I didn't know what I would do with it. It's called "Mother Goose Toss" from the 2019 Goose Tales collection by J. Wecker Frisch for Riley Blake Designs. The fabric put me in mind of the Kay Nielsen illustrations from East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon. My friend Janet said more like Kate Greenaway's Mother Goose illustrations, and she is probably closer to correct.

I have been wanting to try the "Forever Shopper" pattern from Diane Spencer-Ogg, but the Spencer-Ogg tote is unlined, and the Riley Blake cotton was too fine to hold a tote shape, yet I couldn't interline it because the interlining would show on the reverse side of the unlined bag. The shopper is a fabulous pattern meant to be made in a heavy waxed cotton, Cordura, or leather, but I didn't have any of that so I decided to use a Wilmington Sonoma orange heavy cotton as quilt backing for the printed fabric and construct the bag out of the quilted fabric. I could have used any cotton for the quilt backing, but I had ordered this orange and it was a good option, I thought.

Before quilting I had to cut the fabric in half and sew it back together with one piece facing upside-down, so that the two sides of the one-piece bag would show the one-way fabric right-side-up on both sides of the bag after construction.

Since the pattern called for flat-felled seams, I cut-out the pattern piece of the bag body and stitched 3/4-inch inside the cut edge. Then I picked out the quilting stitches up to the stitching line, spread the edges open, and cut the batting out of the seam allowance back to the stitching line. This process gave me the room I needed to construct the bag without the bulk of the quilt batt.

Even so, I was glad that the boxing on the bottom of the bag was held with rivets because the four layers of quilting would have been difficult to stitch on my non-commercial machine.

The Forever Shopper is beautiful with two interior pockets and a stitched-down facing, but is very quick and easy to construct.

This was my first experience with rivets, and poking holes in my carefully constructed bag was nerve wracking. All I can say is: check twice; poke once! Spencer-Ogg has a "How to use rivets in bag making" video.

The pattern for the "Forever Shopper" does not come with a video, but Spencer-Ogg has a video titled "Easy Two Piece Bag and How to Use Rivets" showing construction of another simple shopper tote that includes the rivet how-to as well.

The handles on my Mother Goose shopper are not the handles required by the bag pattern; I fudged on the handles because I didn't have the leather handles I needed to make this bag the proper way. The correct handles are longer and better placed and proportioned.

UPDATE March 17, 2021

I made another Spencer Ogg Forever Shopper, this time with a panel called
"National Parks" by Anderson Design Group for Riley Blake Designs published in July 2019. This panel featuring Bryce Canyon is one of a series of two-dozen posters highlighting US National Parks. I diamond quilted the main pattern piece using a vanilla cotton backing. The body, facings, interior pockets, and handles used up the entire 36 x 43.5-inch "National Parks" panel. The lining/backing for the quilted tote body was cut from a separate piece of cream-colored cotton.

Here is a picture of the back of the Bryce Canyon tote. To make the front and back appear upright constructed, I cut the panel in half horizontally, flipped one piece upside-down, and resewed. I also added D-rings to this bag's handles to give it a little pizazz.

This shot of the bag interior shows facings and zipped pocket cut from the Bryce Canyon poster panel. Please note the riveted bag bottom -- a departure from the pattern which features flaps riveted to the sides of the bag instead of the bottom. Side rivets are a better design feature, but too nerve wracking for my amateur riveting skills. The custom embroidered label is a 50-year-old find that came to light when I was searching my stash for D-rings to use on the handles.

I couldn't resist making a coordinating "Cosmetics Pod" to put in my shopper! The yardage I bought to go with my "Mother Goose Shopper", above, matched perfectly; and when I found a turquoise zipper in my stash, the shopper pod seemed downright destiny. The little zipper tabs on the pod are made with leftover snippets from the parks panel. I've made these pods many times using a free Spencer Ogg pattern and video how-to that I featured in my "Spencer Ogg Cosmetics Pod" and "Holiday Gift Pod" posts.

Update November 23, 2021