Sewing For The Stolen Moments Fabric Tour

As a fabric ambassador for Poppie Cotton Fabrics, I’m often sent beautiful bundles of pretty fabric. Then I spend far too long dreaming over it, trying to decide what to make! How do you decide what to sew with your fabric? Do you buy fabric that you love and then come up with the plan on what to make? Or do you squirrel it away and save it for when the right project comes along? Or do you have a project in mind when you buy your new fabrics? I probably do a little bit of all three!

I selected Stolen Moments from the Poppie Cotton catalogue last year and it’s been with me for a while. When it arrived, the colours and tones were a lot more vivid than I imagined and in all honesty, I was a little stumped with how to use these fabrics in a way that showcases my own style. But I think that there’s always a lesson to be learned in this situation.

Sometimes we can be the most imaginative and creative when we push ourselves to work with materials, colours or media that we wouldn’t typically gravitate towards. The results can be surprising and fun!

Choosing A Project

I like to sew ‘fast finish’ projects that don’t take months to complete. And I also love to show off as many prints as I can with my designs. So lots of my patterns include English paper piecing like hexagons. They’re perfect for charm squares, or using up all your precious fabric scraps.

To showcase this collection, I decided to create a new version of my Hexagon Bumblebee Bag.

The Hexagon Bumblebee Bag

Originally designed for a special sewing event, the Hexagon Bumblebee Bag pattern features embroidered hexagons in the bottom panel, and an embroidered hexagon charm too. You can find it at the link below.

With so many motif options to showcase from the fabric, I felt like I didn’t even need the embroidered examples. So I left those out. I glue basted the fabric hexagons and sewed the English paper pieced panel first. If you haven’t tried EPP before, you’ll love my beginner’s tutorial for lots of detailed information about how to start a hexagon project.

The rest of the bag then came together quickly and easily. I extended the bag handles to 14 inches for a bit of extra length, and I also left off the bag charm option. I also changed the machine quilting to follow the ribbon lines shown in the bow print. But otherwise I followed the pattern construction exactly as outlined in the instructions. Here’s a closer view from the inside.

Whilst the front of the bag has the hexagon panel, I featured two of my favourite bright pink fabrics for the back of the bag. Isn’t it vibrant and fun?

Here’s a close up of the cross hatched diamond quilting. I just love those big roses in the floral print and the bows in the bottom fabric are super sweet.

Do you love sewing bags? Here’s some other examples of the Bumblebee Hexagon Bag pattern; the original design on the left (included in the pattern) and another bright fun one on the right. It’s amazing how different a project can look, depending on the fabrics you use.

Thanks for being here today. I hope you’ve found some sewing inspiration! Ask for the Stolen Moments collection from Poppie Cotton at your favourite fabric retailer.