Regular style zipper bags and humbug bags. All these humbug bags were embellished with rows of machine decorative stitching in a variety of decorative threads before being trimmed & sewed up into the distinctive HUMBUG candy shape as well as the usual cosmetic baggie style.

It's summer and maybe you would rather be outdoors in the sunshine and not sewing in your sewing room? Do remember that you can always take your sewing machine out onto the patio and sew there!! I sure will be doing just that. Having a smaller portable Janome sewing machine makes this kind of summer sewing much easier.

Not sure about you, but I have long been a fan of making little baggies. I find they really don't take up a lot of time which is always a scarce commodity in my life (and probably in yours too). They are practical and useful for my purposes, and I like to keep a bunch of them to give as very appreciated gifts to family and friends.
And they use up small pieces of fabric so are a great stash buster project. We all have bits of fabric left over from various quilting and sewing projects so this is a great way to use them up. It's a good way to use smaller pieces of batting too.

I thought I would show you a few baggies I made recently where I "busted my stash" AND had fun embellishing the baggies with scraps of ribbon, trim and decorative stitches. The sky is the limit when you get going on a creative roll..........on your patio?

And another good thing is that the fabric you use does not have to be the full size of the baggie. We are quilters after-all, so we can piece smaller pieces for a very pleasing pieced look.  You can also piece the lining of the baggie if necessary, too.

This zipper baggie was made using a crazy patch style piecing using charm pack "left overs". I stitched in the ditch on all the seams with decorative stitches to embellish like you would on a crazy quilt.

And this is the other side of the same baggie above.

OR, simply do a flip & sew quilt-as-you-go technique so your piecing and quilting is done in ONE step. That is what I did with all of the black & white print baggies.

I particularly like the technique where you add little tabs to the ends of the zipper as the end result of the zipper insertion is so much neater and nicer. I use that technique on all my baggies now. See pic below.

Little yellow arrows show the tabs that are added to the ends of the zipper which neatens the baggie closure considerably.

Note how I layered 2 ribbons (one was sheer organdy ribbon and the other was satin ribbon) and did decorative stitches over the top to secure them to the bag. It was super quick to do but adds a nice effect and some texture and dimension to the bag.

What about using your embroidery machine test stitch-outs? You do test stitch-outs, right? I had this one (below) and thought it would look really nice on a slightly larger baggie as I did not want to fold or cut the embroidery design.  What will I use this baggie for? I think it work nicely for a knitting project. Or perhaps it can be a baggie in my bathroom cabinet holding things like hair bands or Velcro rollers? Or perhaps it might be a gift for a friend with a sewing magazine or 2 popped inside?

If you'd like to make a little baggie of your own, here is a great tutorial from one of our Janome Canada artisans, Trina, which was published on Janome Life a while back. As you may not have seen this or possibly forgotten it, take a look! She shows us step by step how to make a vegan leather storage baggie.