Saturday, February 11, 2017

A Skinny Bag ~~ finished!

I returned home to my sewing studio. After three days of Beta convention, I needed some stitches to calm down.

At convention, I opened my suitcase to discover that my medicine container had accidentally opened. Pills were all over the place...in clothes and corners of the suitcase, and one found its way into the toe of a shoe. That one was difficult to find! I spent a bit of time shaking clothes and searching suitcase corners, but they were all there and I am happy to say I did not miss a dose of anything. 




While I was shaking and searching, I had a brilliant idea: to make a bag that would hold the pill container so the little individual caps can't open. And that is what I started stitching only minutes after arriving home. It's a bit too big, but for now it's going to work. If the container opens, the pills can't migrate to the ends of the suitcase. 


Edited from here: 
I may make another one about an inch smaller I have cut this one down so that the container will fit tighter in the bag. The original purpose was to prevent pills from getting out, after all. One of the things I'll keep kept is the angle on the corners because that allows the bag to open wide. Since this fabric (from the lovely Pretti at Sew Pretti Quilts) is from the same line as the last bag that I made, I'll use another piece and then figure out how I can use this bag I wanted to keep this one. 


Now that I've made the adjustments, the container fits perfectly in the bag and there's no wiggle room, so the lids can open, which means pills can't slip away. Yay!

Look how much better the container fits.
Compare the extra space in this one
to the extra space here.
The bag swallows the container.
All I did was to cut off the zipper (and straighen the new edge). I used the same zipper, which means the edges almost met the corners of the bag, so it opens wide. That allows me to get pills out without having to take the container out of it's bag. Very convenient!
bag 1 for holding medicine bottles

Although you can't tell it from the pics, the new bag is actually much longer than the first one: at 12 11 inches it's twice as wide, in fact. So for now I have two bags from this beautiful line of fabric. Coincidentally, both are meant specifically to hold medicine.

bag 2 for holding pill container
At this slow rate I'll eventually have a whole set of these pretty bags. Thanks again Preeti! The fabric is beautiful!

Edited again: Because I've already gotten a request for a pattern, here is a "sort of" pattern.  Enlarge it to fit the length and width of your pill box. I quilted the fabric first and eventually got it into this general shape using the measurements of my container. I recommend that you cut a piece of scrap and check it against the actual container. 





Linking up with
Thank Goodness It's Finish Friday @ Lisa in Port Hope
Finished or Not Friday @ Busy Hand Quilts 

7 comments:

margaret said...

Do you have a pattern for this bag, it is genius!

Mary Marcotte said...

Here you go, Margaret. Thanks for visiting!

Barbara Sindlinger said...

What a great idea. I've had that happen to me once too. I unfortunately never found a few but luckily it was just a vitamin not a prescription.

Karen S said...

This is a very smart idea. Many of us use these containers for our medication and this would save a lot of hassle.
Both bags look wonderful.
Thanks for the great idea.

Kaja said...

You are so resourceful, and now you have the best-looking medicine kit too.

Mary Marcotte said...

Barbara, my fear is that one of our maltese puppies will find a pill. We do occasionally take one along when we stay at pet-friendly hotels.

Kaja and Karen, thanks for the sweet comments. How it came to me, I can't fathom, but after "the great search" last week, I'm thrilled to have something that will contain my pill container.

Lisa in Port Hope said...

That's a very clever idea! The last time I flew, I took my medication in the child safe prescription bottle and took my pill sorter separately (empty), but I love this idea for my driving trips! Thank you for your linkup with TGIFF.