Karen has a brand-new bag!

Last weekend, I was back to making something for myself again in the sewing room...I made this new bag for myself using, of all things, an old rag rug that I used to use in our kitchen.

My husband didn't like the rag rugs on the floor. He complained that they were too slippery. So they were relegated to the linen closet until...I found a pattern in a book from the library that showed how to transform ordinary household items into purses and tote bags. So I put one of those abandoned rag rugs to use, and I'm thrilled with the result.

The original pattern came from a book called Low-Tech Boutique: 25+ Quick & Clever Projects Using Ready-Mades by Cheryl Weiderspahn. There were several fun ideas in the book, but I settled on the one that wouldn't require a trip to the store. Actually, this pattern called for placemats for the part that you see on the front and in the interior of the bag that forms the exterior and interior pockets. But, not having coordinating placemats that I wanted to sacrifice for this project, I opted to use calico from my stash instead.

Though it's probably hard to see from this photos, I made generous use of pockets in this bag. The interior has pockets lining both sides in a variety of sizes--for my cell phone, glasses case, checkbook, keys, etc., as well as knitting needles, crochet hooks, embroidery scissors, depending on what I'm currently making...I rarely go anywhere without at least a small project in my bag to work on if I have to do any waiting.