Over the past couple months I’ve been working on a bunch of small items, using up stray fabric here and there.
![A small drawstring bag made of gilded, floral Japanese fabric. Between the various blossoms float some butterflies.](/assets/images/content/melanierichards-jp-drawstring-s.jpg)
Probably the most fun sewing project of this batch was a drawstring bag with lining (pattern from The Spruce Crafts). I made this small bag as a replacement for the not-very-cute mesh bag that came with my reusable makeup remover pads, and used roughly the dimensions of that mesh bag to guide this project. I think it looks maybe 2 inches too long, but it works for the job at hand. I bought the fabric a few years ago in Nippori, Tokyo’s fabric district, and am fiiiinally getting around to using it.
![A close-up of the bag with a reusable makeup remover pad peeking out the top](/assets/images/content/melanierichards-jp-drawstring-pad-s.jpg)
![My fingers holding the drawstring bag open to show the solid navy lining fabric](/assets/images/content/melanierichards-jp-drawstring-open-s.jpg)
I think what made this project so fun was working on the drawstring casing and lining. When you’re in the midst of it, the layers don’t seem like much. All of a sudden things sort of magically fall into place, as fabric is turned out the right way.
The last time I made a drawstring bag was in middle school home ec class, when everyone had to make a rather large drawstring bag: think of the type of large sack you might take on a sleepover. Those had much chunkier drawstrings! And no lining to speak of.
This fabric also made an appearance in a batch of masks:
![A mask made with the gilded floral fabric and metallic gold straps. And a mask of cerulean blue with gold thread detailing.](/assets/images/content/melanierichards-gold-masks-s.jpg)
![Three masks, two made of a light grey fabric with houses illustrated in white. The third has black fabric with little white rectangles on it.](/assets/images/content/melanierichards-more-masks-s.jpg)
The grey illustrated-house fabric is also from a small cut of fabric purchased in Nippori. And I swear, this is the last batch of masks I’m making in this pandemic—I’m sick of them!
![Two poofy, five-inch square sachets made out of black and red plaid flannel fabric](/assets/images/content/melanierichards-pine-sachets-s.jpg)
Also due to the pandemic, 2020 was the first year I have not gone home to my parents’ for Christmas. Which also means it’s the first year I bothered to get my own tree! We bought a small but real pine tree from the grocery store, and I thought it might be nice to make some pine sachets with the dried-out needles.
I cut and sewed enough of this plaid flannel fabric to make 6 sachets, but it ended up taking forever to get needles off the tree. So the remaining four sachets became a set of holiday coasters instead:
![A set of four, square coasters made out of black and red plaid flannel fabric](/assets/images/content/melanierichards-plaid-coasters-s.jpg)
And that’s it for this batch of tiny projects!
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