jimmi bags

I made these three bags for my mom and sisters.  I cut up some of my brother's t-shirts for the fabric.  It has been nearly three years since he passed, so I thought it might be nice to make something new out of his old clothes.  It just doesn't seem right to give away all of that stuff when I know we can turn it into useful keepsakes.

So here is my first go.  I chose very simple and quick bag designs because I wasn't super sure of my abilities (I didn't use any kind of pattern).  I call these Jimmi Bags for three reasons:

1. my brother's name was Jimmy.
2. these bags were nearly jimmy-rigged.  I used three different t-shirts and some scrap fabric that I had laying around.  I didn't do anything fancy--no interfacing, padding, or pockets.  They are only meant to be worn for short periods of time because there is no additional reinforcement.
3. it's a cute name.

So I guess that any kind of bag thrown together with supplies on hand that offers memories of something or someone special can be called a Jimmi Bag.  The fact that I didn't spend all day sewing each of these bags shouldn't take away from the meaning of the project.  My mom and sisters will be able to carry a reminder of Jimmy around with them by making use of these bags as often as they like.

For all of these bags, I used cotton fabric for the lining.  I thought it would give the bag more structure than the stretch of jersey knit especially with no interfacing.

This rectangular design was the simplest.  I realized after it was complete that, because of the lack of reinforcement, the bag sagged wide open.  So I added some velcro to the top to hold everything inside.

This circular design was my first.  I think it's cute and I really like how the gathers turned out, but I wonder if the opening should be larger.  I'll have to get feedback from the user.

I like this triangular design, too.  It's a little bigger than I thought it would be (I was going for the tight shoulder bag look for all of them) so I made the strap a little longer.  This bag can probably hold an entire day's necessities while the others are probably only useful on short trips.  But I really like the combination of light grey and light blue.  It gave me an idea for a skirt . . .

This is definitely something I would try again.  I am also sure that I can come up with more useful keepsakes in his memory.