Sterling goodie-bags

Cathy and Carla on the beach at Sterling State Park, Monroe MI, May 2024

by Linda Theil

Several years ago, Alisa discovered the full-amenity cottages on the beach at Sterling State Park in Monroe, Michigan; and we have enjoyed several family vacations there. Two years ago, I invited my cousins to spend a long spring weekend at Sterling, We enjoyed it so much we went again last year, and plan a trip for this year, too.

I wanted to make a commenorative goodie-bag for this years trip so I chose a photo from last year and developed a color scheme for a tiny duffle and matching mini-backpack. The duffle is made from the Spencer-Ogg "Arch Zipper Pouch" in the medium size -- 9 x 6 x 3-inches; and the mini-backpack is the "Bitty Bug Pack" pattern by Carolina Little Stitches.

Both bags are made with Tilda "Chambray Dots" and faux waxed-canvas from Sally Tomato. For the feature panel on the front of the mini-backpack, I resized the Sterling beach photo with my cousins picking up shells in the background and created a document file with the correctly sized photos to send to Alisa to print on printable fabric sheets in her ink-jet printer. When I got the prints from Alisa, I cut out the mini-backpack pattern pieces from the perfectly sized prints and ironed the pieces to set the ink. I use this same technique to make personalized labels for my bags, and it works great. I interfaced the prints with fusible non-woven and fusible fleece for the littel backpacks. The tiny duffles were also interfaced with fusible fleece for the body pieces, and non-woven fusible for the bottom/gusset.

I also used the photo make a bag charm by layering the print, fusible non-woven interfacing, fusible fleece and a background fabric to match the color scheme. I sewed the badge together using a blanket stitch and slipped a 1/2-inch swivel clip on a piece of faux leather between the layers to attach the charm to a bag or tote.

Alisa and I are filling the bags with toiletries and small gifts to delight my cousins.

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