But then I learned that a few of my friends had been unable to go and swap, too. So we decided to swap on our own. (yay!)
Here's my bag that I made to swap. It's got an embroidered vintage tea towel piece inset on one side of the outside, and awesome red and white polka dotted IKEA oilcloth (thin, flexible and really durable) on the inside. It's big. I designed it to be big and strong enough to use for groceries.
The fun fact about it is that I sewed it entirely on Mimi's Hello Kitty Janome as I was trying to see if it worked well enough (it does). The lines are not as straight as with my other machines, but this was really heavy, thick fabric - the linen isn't linen - its actually drop cloth fabric that I bought at Lowe's. (crazy legit heavy duty!) - overall the Janome did great.
And the bag is fun. A little vintage. A little new. French seams. Oilcloth. Hardware store fabric. AnnaMaria Horner fabric. IKEA. Improv piecing. It's all happy to me. ... Hoping it's new owner will think so.