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Welcome to the second program of my miniseries "Sew Simple with Rectangles and Squares." During this three-part series, I'm featuring streamlined, yet modern projects, that take one, maybe two hours to sew. The hold-it sacks are my first "Sew Simple" projects. Prop up your cell phone or electronic tablet in the cradle area of the fabric sack. Made from laminated fabric it's ideal to use throughout your home or office. The unique finished shape appears as if it was made from a complicated pattern. But not this gadget holder. It's all made from rectangular shapes. "Sew Simple with Rectangles and Squares," that's what's next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-running sewing and quilting program

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Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting and special-effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover, making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 90 years. Pellon, dedicated to providing sewing innovations in interfacings, battings, fusibles, home dec., and more. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. The hold-it sacks are made from three different types of rectangles. Laminated fabric from the very large one filled with rice and fiberfill so that an electronic tablet can fit right in the cradle. The cell phone or the tablet can be held securely horizontally or vertically. It's kind of a conversation piece. They're funny-looking projects but yet great for techie projects. Laminated fabric is my fabric of choice because it's easy to clean and has a nice finish to it. It's 10" x 12" for the smaller size. 12" x 18" for the larger size. Just one layer of the rectangle. Then there are small little pieces that you're going to be cutting, smaller rectangles. Just to show you what they are. The cording is the cording that is used for pillows. It's a fusible cording and a 3" rectangle. The little tab at the top is 2" x 3" that has the perforated strap fabric fused to it. You fold it in half along the perforations and create the tab, pretty simple. The base is much the same. There's a base here made with a larger strip, a longer strip, with the fusible strap material for interfacing. Those are some of the pieces that you'll need to create this. To make this unique shape, I'd like to show you how it's accomplished. The rectangle is folded in half so that the short edges are meeting. Just stitch a 1/4" seam allowance which is done here. Then, sew the top edge, but before doing it, wrap the corner, folding it along the seamline. You can pin on laminated fabric using clips or fabric clips. Then sew across the top but leave an opening. This is where the rice or the bean bag pellets are going to be inserted. Now, if you take a close-up look at this we left an opening and then stitched to the cut edge at each opening, so when I turn this right side out that edge is very easy to turn. You'll see that in the very last step of this. So far, it's pretty simple. Now we're going to fold this. Fold it so that the triangles are predominant at the corner so that you're creating this shape. The seam is stacked, one on top of the other. You get a triangular shape, and pin across the end. Do the same on the other side. Now, the other side only has one seam. It's straight on the fabric. You take this to your cutting mat. It doesn't have to be exactly 3/4" although that's the measurement I used. Trim off 3/4" from each corner. I'll flip this over and do the same. Trim off 3/4". In this opening we're going to be placing the little tab piece, so that you can easily move... your hold-it sack around the house, or wherever you'd like to put it. Then on the end that does not have a vertical seam, it just has one seam at the very top put your little piece of fabric for the tab. You sneak it in there. Pin it, and then sew the seams. Sew both of these little seams that I am pointing at. On this particular sample, it's already been stitched. Now you turn this right side out. If you're not working with laminated fabric, just cotton fabric, I would recommend to add fusible interfacing to the back of it to give it a little extra support. You can see it's got that shape now. It looks like some of those containers that hold sour cream when you order a baked potato at a restaurant. That's how we got the shape. Then, align the seam that's in the fabric so it's in the center. It's starting to look like a hold-it sack. The base is formed by measuring 3-1/2" from the cut edge. I'll just measure up 3-1/2". I would pin this base into place. This is not complicated sewing, so if you make it 3-1/4" it's not going to matter, just approximate 3-1/2". My next sample has this stitched into place. Here it comes, it's stitched. Then I pressed the 3" fabric around the piping. This piping has fusible web around it, so that when you press it, it sticks. We have extra fabric at the ends that are folded. That's placed at the base of -- let me get some pins -- the base of the little stand. Now, the last stitching by machine is to stitch the remaining tail or this section. You fold it once, you fold it twice so it meets together, and stitch. Here's a close up. I'm using the zipper foot to stitch along the edge. If the foot sticks, you may want to line the fabric with some tissue paper to help sew this area. And here's this funny-looking little project. It doesn't have any rice in it yet. But you'd fill the bottom with about two cups of rice. Then add the remaining stuffing with Fiberfil and hand sew the hold-it sack closed at this end. Put it on your counter, on your desk, charge your cell phone, view your electronic tablet and you have a clever home decor item made with rectangles. Toss them in a game or use them to hold down pattern pieces, these mini sacks can be both fun and functional. You can easily make three mini sacks in an hour or less. This has to be the simplest technique I've ever shown on Sewing with Nancy. But, I'm sitting at the sewing machine. I can sew one for you. I like to use them as pattern weights. Just to give you some ideas on how to work with laminated fabric. It's not very difficult, at all. You'll use a traditional needle, maybe change to a sharp needle to go through the layers. It's cotton fabric covered with a light coating, the laminated coating. This piece of fabric is a rectangle, 4" x 6". Fold it in half, meeting the short ends and kind of do a finger press or crease so that you can center the tab. This is the same size tab as I used earlier, a 3" strip, folded in half. Then pin or clip. With laminated fabrics, you're going to want to use some clips for positioning. Fold this in half. I'm going to center that a little bit better. Fold this in half and clip again to hold it in place. Now we're going to do the stitching. A 1/4" seam allowance is all that's needed for this particular technique. If you go over the center, it's easy, easy to sew that seam. Then we're going to wrap the seam. When working with vinyl, it's hard to turn the corner, so wrapping the seam makes it so much easier. Just fold the fabric along the seamline. Then I'll start to sew, tacking down the seam allowance holding down that seam allowance. So, it's two seams at the sewing machine. I'll lower the presser foot. And really, I'm not pinning right now. I'm just holding that down, kind of finger pinning it. And, that's two of the three seams. Then you can turn this right side out. It's slightly tacky, so I'm going to show you one I've already turned right side out. And get the corners pointy, fill it with a little rice or some pellets. This point is where you center the remaining seam. And, oops, I've got a little rice coming out. Fold under the seam allowances. Now, move your needle on your presser foot all the way over to the left side. I have the seam allowances pressed under, finger pressed under. I have a few rice pellets moving out! Then stitch the seam. Now, you may find -- I'm not finding it right now -- but if you find that the foot does not glide along the edge, you can place down some tissue paper. But because I'm sewing half on the fabric and half off the fabric, it really doesn't matter. Maybe a bar tack at the end. In that short of time, you've created a sack to use to hold down your pattern pieces and you've learned how to work with laminated fabric. Don't settle for tan or black bins for your shelf. Customize fabric bins to accent your home decor by selecting coordinating fabrics. Made, you guessed it, from rectangles and squares. The sewing is enjoyable and the end result is as fresh in appearance as it is functional. We chose a coordinating fabric group to make our three sizes of the fabric bins with grommets. You can see the fun lining color that we chose for all the designs, to carry the look through. The grommets are small to large and are inserted in the side ends. They're really speedy to put together. I love the fabric options that you have because you get to choose fabrics. The square and rectangle sizes are on the table. First, the rectangles. This small rectangle is 12" x 8". Then you see a line across the top. One inch from the top, you place a line because that's going to be the line to cut. There's a craft interfacing and a lining that's cut one inch shorter. The square portion comes by cutting out squares in the lower corners. From the small one, a two-inch square. For each bin, you'll need two pieces, two sides. And for the medium size, we have a 16" x 9-1/2". Remember, all the dimensions are given in the book that accompanies this program. Then the three-inch corners are cut out. The third one has a 21" x 13-1/2" rectangle with a four-inch corner removed from each area. You possibly can see, as you've been looking at these pieces that we basted the craft interfacing to the outer fabric. You just have to baste it quickly along so it stays in place. The lining is cut out the same size as the craft interfacing, shorter. We're not going to be doing a lot of sewing. If you look inside, that one inch, the reason to have that extra one inch is it's folded over and pressed into place. This edge is cut with a pinking shears or a decorative blade of your rotary cutter. Sew the lower seam first. Meet right sides together. 1/2" seam allowance is what I'm recommending. You sew that lower seam. This is a pretty springy seam and has a lot of bulk in it. So, to hold that seam flat stitch with a multiple step zigzag design as I'm doing right now. Just sew across that seam to hold all the layers flat. If you want to give the bottom of your bin some extra support you could cut a small rectangle of that craft interfacing 1/2" shorter than from each side than the base. Just topstitch that in or even use double sided basting tape to hold it. This is a bin; this is not something you're going to be wearing. Now, the top, to make this really fast and easy use paperbacked fusible web, 1/2" wide. Place it or fuse it to each end. This happens to be pressure sensitive. You don't have to fuse it the first time around just press it down firmly with your finger. At this point, do some trimming. With a decorative blade, just trim off the excess fabric. Now you have the edge finished. I told you, this is a program called "Sew Simple." Then some sewing of the side seams. In this particular sample, the side seams have been sewn. You see they're kind of springy. To press it, use a dowel or a seam stick that is flat on one side. It's rounded so that you can press open along the curve. It helps with the shaping and give plenty of steam along this area to press open the seams. Then to sew the corners is what's left. The corners really shape by themselves. The side seam is met to the lower edge. Sew across that end, simple as that. You may want to trim off the excess seam allowances with a decorative blade just to get rid of some of the bulk in this area. Then you can turn this right side out and make your lining piece. Rather than using 1/2" seam allowance make it just a little deeper, 5/8" would do the trick. Let me get my pieces. Here's the lining piece. Meet wrong sides together, tuck it in. Take some time to pin the lining and the craft interfacing together. I've already removed the paper backing. Then just wrap it around. You're going to take more time than I'm doing right now. Make it smooth and then press all these layers together. Press from the inside and there you go. That's all that's to it. Now, you'd finish all the way around the edge, but that gives you the general idea. The finishing point for the bags and bins -- These aren't bags, these are bins -- are the grommets at each end. I recommend to make a sample before putting a grommet in your bin. Piece some fabric so that it has seam just the way your fabric in your bin has a seam. Truthfully, the larger grommets are easier to put in than the smaller grommets. In the packaging, there will be a template. You'll measure down the distance that you'll like the grommet and trace an opening. You can see I've already cut the opening. Take some time and trim off the craft interfacing. Trim that out a little further. Then place the grommets on the right side and the wrong side. Kind of wait until you hear them nap together or kind of click. Then press it down and click. You'll hear the two going together. Then you can see how much pressure you have to apply to put it into place. Add a grommet at each end, large or small. The choice is yours. What's good for the shelf is good for the wall. With a little tweaking of the instructions, fabric bins turn into wall pockets that provide organization and style to any home or office. Again, I've chosen some fabric coordinates to create the three sizes of the wall pockets. These sizes were just kind of determined by what we thought looked good. The grommets add a little interest to the front plus some trim. Then, two grommets in the back so they can be hung by the mountable clips that you can place on your wall. The sewing is identical to the construction of the bins with the addition of a little trim and a number of different grommets that we put into place. The sizes of the bins, you can really make these any size you'd like. The small the pattern rectangle started out 9" x 10" with one-inch corners cut out. All three wall pockets have one-inch corners cut out. The medium is 11" x 15". And the large that I have right here is 15" x 14". Like before, the craft interfacing and the lining is cut one inch shorter for all three sizes at the top. Just mark one inch and fold it down. That's the size that you cut the craft interfacing. If you'd like to add some trim, which I thought tied the three fabrics together, you can use the pressure sensitive adhesive or fusible web and place the trim for the large size 2-1/2 inches down from the top. You stitch this on first before you sew the side seams. Then construct the wall pockets just as the bins, simple as that. So, once you learn a technique, you have several options. In working with the grommets, I want to spend a little time talking about this. The front grommet is totally a decorative accent. The small grommet has to go through many layers of fabric. Make certain that you trim away that inside layer, that craft interfacing before you snap the layers together. Then align two grommets on the back so that you can hang them on the wall. So, whether it's fabric bins or wall pockets the sewing is simple with rectangles and squares. African communities are rich with artistic traditions. We may be familiar with their history and artistry of African people in the Americas, but we know little or nothing about Africans in other parts of the world. We share the fascinating story of Siddi Women's Quilting Cooperative of India with Henry Drewal. Welcome, Henry, to Sewing with Nancy. Thank you, Nancy. I saw your exhibit from the Women's Cooperative Quilt on display at a quilt show. I was drawn to them by color. You have created exhibits from these. Share with our viewers how you became interested in working with this group of women. Well, my career has been on learning about and studying the history of arts of African peoples, both in Africa and in Diaspora in the places where African people have found themselves. My wife was going to do some research in India and she said if you want to spend some time with me you might want to get a grant to come. So, I followed her and went to India and got a grant and began to research African communities in India, people who had lived there for centuries, and now, and these are their descendants. The quilts that are made in India by the women there, you'll see a close up, right now, of the quilt that I'm holding. It has great color. Tell us how they begin creating the quilt. Well, in these communities, they are relatively poor. These are independent communities that live in the forest areas, the Western Ghats. They'll use their clothing until it can no longer be worn. So, they take remnants from the clothing of their family members. Then there are periodic markets of secondhand clothing that they'll also purchase things from. They'll get a sari that they put as the backing for the quilt. Once they have enough remnants and the sari backing, they begin to make the quilt. It's a kind of visual documentation of the fashions of family members over a period of two or three years. I'm specifically holding this corner to remind myself for you to tell the story about how they begin quilting. Right, okay. Well, actually, they begin the quilting by going from a corner all the way around with a continuous running stitch until they reach the center to finish these baby quilts that you're looking at now. The center motif is just that, it's a showstopper, usually. Yes, it is, usually. I like to think of it as a kind of design flourish where the woman is coming to the conclusion of this wonderful work and will put extra time and effort into the pattern at the very center. The maker of this quilt, we need to recognize her. Yes, her name is Khatumbi Musawar. She lives in the village of Mainalli. This is where the quilting cooperative began. The second quilt that you brought along with us has a great focal point in the middle, that purple frame area. But in the corners, there's interest, because you talk about the motif that's in most corners, as in this quilt. - Oh, right, yes. In those quilts, there are two motifs that usually occur, a series of lozenge shapes multiplied. And in the very corner of the quilt, as you have here three of them, these are phulas. They're called phulas, which means flower. It's a piece of fabric, usually of a distinctive color, that is folded two or three times and then sewn. Now, this is where the quilt begins, at the corner. But, this is also where it ends, because as I asked the quilters, I said, why do you put these phulas or flowers in the corner, because this is the final thing that is done. They said, "Huh, you know, if we didn't put the flowers "in the corners of the quilt, either one "or multiple ones, like here, the quilt would be naked." That is, unfinished. Well, maybe we have to start doing that in this country. I think so. Adding flowers to the corner adds a nice detail to it. You bring these quilts to this country. They are sold. They help support the people who make them. Right. I've done two, actually several exhibitions of the quilts. One in New York at the Schomburg Center. Another one was held at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. I've held an exhibition of the quilts here at UW-Madison. Then you saw them at the Quilt Expo. Yes, they're stunning. Thank you for sharing this great program with us, Henry and for bringing this information to us. There's something we can learn from every culture. Thanks for being with us. Thanks, Nancy. If you'd like to have more information about the Siddi Women's Cooperative you can go to nancyzieman.com where you'll find all things Sewing with Nancy. You can re-watch my interview with Henry, re-watch the program of today. Go to Nancy's Corner and click on Henry's name for more information. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now. Nancy has written a fully illustrated book titled "Sew Simple with Rectangles and Squares" that includes all the information from this three-part series. It's $14.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373

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