A couple years ago, TheMisterT’s aunt offered some of her mother’s table cloth & napkin sets. I chose this one, then asked if it would be OK if I turned it into something else. She didn’t object at all.
I got the idea to make bags for all the women in the family! Luckily, I had this cool pattern that I got from @mellybelly81 (I think?) in the Use it Or Lose It thread! I did a modified version of View A.
Cutting the printed area of the cloth into 6 equal parts was just about the right amount of fabric to do the main body of the bags. I got really lucky to find the checked fabric after I had given up and was walking out of JoAnn! The shades of blue, green, pink, and burgundy in the print just aren’t the ones available in quilting cottons around here. But this stretch twill had a blue that was soooo close as to basically match. YEY!
There are two bags with the flowers across the whole front and four with the flowers on the edge of the front (2 left, 2 right). A similar distribution on the back with the ribbons and flowers. The pattern calls for making handles with upholstery vinyl, but the available selection around here is verrrrry small and I can’t imagine color matching that (even with white) would exist at all, let alone be possible via online sources. So, I decided on this green strapping material. That also helped these look less like handbags and more like a market tote or shopping bag.
Instead of covering the print by putting a pocket on the outside, I use the napkins to put a pocket on the inside. It has 3 sections, two that would fit a phone (one my size and one for the bigger models) and a pen pocket. I made a label to describe a bit about how these came about: Grams and me (Irene + Tara) with laundering directions.
We’re taking a family vacation in June and I will be giving them while we’re there. Because they all look pretty much alike, I used the last little scraps of the floral print to make tags with everyone’s initials in their favorite color. I used the same fusible interfacing as for the bags, then cut the circles and the letters with my Sizzix. The letters are glued with FabricTac and then stitched. All the letter fabric and the ribbon used to make the loops are from stash.
The backs are the check.
I think they turned out so cute! I know they aren’t everyone’s style, but I think that all the women in the family (TheMister’s mom, aunt, sister, 2 nieces + me) will appreciate that Gram’s table cloth set became other useful items. They all truly appreciate handmade things, too.
And… whew! I enjoyed this project most of the time, but it was a lot, so I am glad it’s finally complete. That said, I already have the materials to make another one for myself! 
UPDATE: The bags were very graciously received. Everyone was impressed and thankful and thought it was totally neat to turn Grams’s table linens into something new! Her daughters (my MIL and her sister) thought that their mom would’ve loved them. I gave them on the first day we were all together and then later a few of us used them as beach bags! A few others were too precious about them to take them to the beach. 
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