Girly gift...

I'm leavin' on a jet plane.....

just for a few days to sunny Arizona.  I needed a nifty hostess gift for my friend so I fashioned a girly gift just for her.  I made matching padded hangers, two zippered pouches for cosmetics or jewelry or whatnots.....

....and I stitched up this handy-dandy drawstring laundry bag to put everything in.  Each item was very easy to make and all were made from online freebie patterns.  I used a little less than one yard each of the outer fabric and the lining fabric.  Here is the pattern for the lined drawstring bag, and here is the hanger pattern and here you'll find the lined zipper pouch.

I really have much better instructions for the hanger pattern than given above so I'll share how I made them.   First off, I buy pre-padded hangers at Walmart (a 3 pack of satin hangers).  I figure, why reinvent the wheel or the padded hanger?  This way I don't have to wrap hangers with batting which seems like way too much work to me.  The next step is to measure my fabric.  Cut rectangles (2 for each hanger) 4 1/2" x 9".  These will become the sleeves that will cover the hangers.  With right sides together, fold the fabric the long way and sew a rounded end on one short side and then come straight down the long side using 1/4" seam allowance.  It's a good idea to back stitch each sleeve.  Leave the other short end open.  Turn it right-side-out with a chop stick.  Repeat with the second rectangle.  Now I add a little polyester batting, about the size of two cotton balls, to the ends of each sleeve to make them extra soft.  Push it down to the end with the chop stick.  Slide the padded hanger into each sleeve so the seam is on the bottom side of the hanger.  Hand stitch the two sleeves together at the middle.  Cover the stitching with a nice hunk of ribbon and tie a pretty bow.  I like grosgrain ribbon for this, but you can use scrap fabric in matching or contrasting colors.  Bows with raw fabric edges look chic too.  You could tie a sachet to each hanger if you desired.

My zippered pouches are made just like the pattern above.  I added a little thin cotton batting along with my outer fabric as I sewed it together.  It gave the pouches a bit more structure.

I love the lined drawstring bag pattern given.  Since I was making a laundry bag, mine was larger than the dimensions in the pattern, but that's easy to do once you've made one drawstring bag.  Be sure you read the instructions given on how to thread the drawstrings.  I decided to make a drawstring bag (unlined) out of a red plaid dish towel that will be a gift bag for some coffee beans and homemade vanilla. 

Adios until later!