Swag bags are WOYWW

It's "What's on your workdesk Wednesday" and I have nothing on my desk today. I'm still recovering from the frenzy of coordinating my son's wedding. I can show you what was on my desk last week though. On Wednesday I was in the midst of embroidering and sewing the swag bags for the wedding just a couple of days away. 
I really, really should have started sooner but the procrastinating side of me came out in a big way as the wedding approached...never a good thing.
 

I love getting swag when I go to a wedding, chocolate, bubbles, Jordan almonds.....it's all part of the fun and celebration. So, I volunteered to make the swag bags. And me being me, of course they could not just be organza bags bought in stacks of a dozen for a few dollars. My creative genius would never allow something so simple as that....oh no, I had to make them special, which of course meant they would take a little time...of which I was sure I had plenty. I searched around cyberspace for a cute, special idea for my bags and found this drawstring bag pattern from In Color Order.  

 Not that a drawstring bag needs a pattern but I always find great tips and ideas in quilter's patterns  and I really love Jeni's blog. Don't you love the use of two fabrics? How cute would this be in the wedding colors? So, I purchased her fabulous bag pattern in PDF form. I did indeed find some great tips and she even included a simple formula for easily changing the size of the bag. I hate math, so I'm always happy when someone does it for me. Her formula made making a custom size bag so very easy, even for me.

 I made the first one and got approval from the bride and proceeded to gather what I needed to make 90 swag bags. That's right, 90! At this point, any shortcut is a good shortcut and quilters are great short cutters. I used the strip sewing method on this bag, it was the perfect technique for completing 6 bags at a time in a flash!.....perhaps "flash" is an exaggeration but it WAS much quicker than one at at time.





Soon enough...there I go again, thinking I had plenty of time....my sewing table was piled with swag bags in various stages and I was well on my way to completing my task.

At about bag 42,  I began to think I needed to shorten this task even more or these bags were not going to be done on time.
Enter the procrastinating genius...Hmmmm, does the bridal party REALLY need a bag? Do the children attending REALLY need a bag? Do my husband and I REALLY need a bag? Well, that just took 23 off the count....and now I only needed 25 more.......there was a light at the end of the tunnel!!  
Don't worry, the kids will not go without swag, I had already come up with a paper swag bag for them in my head, they would get theirs too.

All the bags got completed on time and filled with chocolate, bubbles and and a noise maker to which I attached a message...shhhhh, it's a surprise. We're gonna make some noise when it's "kiss the bride"time!!
It was a fun addition to a young couple's celebration....and the bags were cute too!

I hope to have something new going on next week. For now, I will head over to WOYWW  and share my mess from a crazy, frenzied week of wedding stuff!