Hexie Zipper Bags

Part of the mission for Cotton cuts is to help people in need locally and in times of emergency across the world. Last year when the wildfires hit Australia it was refreshing to see the sewing community actively sharing their support through making Joey pouches for koalas and wallabies at a Cotton cuts sewing event. I have seen first hand how Quilter’s are willing to give their time and talent through various charities to make quilts to literally wrap someone in a blanket of love. It is a powerful thing to take a needle and thread to fabric making tangible gifts expressing how much we care. People across the globe share in this time honored skill passing it along to the next generation. 

Our quilting sisters in Honduras are in desperate need of assistance after being hit by two category 4 Hurricanes this month of November. The non-profit organization One Common Thread has taught these women the skills to sew hexagons as a means to support their families. You can help these families with a purchase of a Finished quilt, a package of hexagons  or a Donation to directly support these women with 100% of the proceeds. This recent News story documents the devastation and how Courtney from Onecommonthread.org is trying to help these families rebuild.

Cotton Cuts included a hexagon mask kit n October’s Classic Membership from this organization for you to see the quality of the product. In this recent blog I shared some holiday gift ideas using a kit from these women. Today I wanted to share some ideas of how to use the hexagons to make some zipper bags and a sewing project bag. 

Materials needed 

• Assorted fat quarters 

• Coordinating Aurifil thread

• Fusible fleece or batting 

• Zippers 

• Screen fabric for project bag

• Assorted hexagons 

To get started I laid out the hexagons to determine my design and finished bag size. It is amazing to see all the different ways to use the hexagons in addition to the traditional English paper piecing. I created a Pinterest board to share some inspiration using hexagons in your sewing projects.

For this design I created some flowers and will use red thread to free motion quilt a flower petal design to attach the hexagons to the fabric. After preparing the hexies by trimming the seams to ¼” and removing the papers I used fabric glue to temporarily hold them in place. Iron on the fusible fleece to the back of the fabric and you are ready to quilt the design.

For the sewing machine design I laid out the hexies following the same method and first stitched straight lines across the design in tan thread using a walking foot. To fill in the background I used black thread to free motion quilt spiral circles.

These small pieces are a great way to try out a new design and improve your skills as you learn free motion quilting. For this bag I added some red thread writing the word Love on top of the machine.

For the project bag I used screen fabric for the backing so that you can easily see the contents. I found that zipper on a roll is more cost effective when making several zippered bags than purchasing individual zippers. My finished bag is 14” x 16” to carry my supplies for quilt blocks.

Here are my completed hexie bags ready for gift giving this holiday season.