Mixed Results

Wow, what a busy few weeks. It's hard to believe almost a month has passed since my last post. Lots to tell you so will have to do it over a few posts.

I must admit that I have had to choose between a sewing project and blogging in my spare time recently as I have had less spare time than usual. The project won out of course :). Luckily for me I have been able to set up a temporary sewing room so that I am able to grab 20 minutes here and there when Miss M is sleeping to run in and do a little more sewing.

My latest project is an 18th birthday present for the daughter of a very dear friend. She will be receiving it this weekend as I was finally able to get enough time to finish it last night.

I started with some beautiful, Indian looking fabrics and the 'All Patched Up' pattern by Shirley Jenkins from the 'Crafts to Inspire' magazine. After cutting and piecing my squares I laid everything out ready to sew. I was a little nervous as it was the first time I had made pieced squares.

Eventually I was able to sew everything together and this became the outside of the bag. I was really, really happy with the resulting fabric. It looks awesome. The light purple fabric was used for the lining.

Outside of bag

Inside of bag

 

                                       Close-up of outside                    Close-up of button

                                       I love these fabrics

And ... drum roll please ... here is Miss A modelling the finished bag for me...

I'm happy with the look of the bag overall and very happy with how the pieced fabric turned out. 

I was very disappointed to get to the end of the construction process and realise that the instructions had not included any information on putting in the pockets, except for the zips. So, I went to all the effort of putting in 2 zips only to find that anything put through them would simply fall to the bottom of the lining. It was very difficult to add pockets after the fact because of the way the bag was constructed but, thanks to Vliesofix and fusible hemming tape, I managed to do so. I'm not sure how secure they are though and am not really happy with them.

The final step of construction was to sew along the seams to secure all 3 layers of fabric together (there is quilters muslin between the inner and outer fabrics). Not having done this before, and having no further guidelines from the instructions, I assumed this was easy. In hindsight I should have pinned the bag along the seams before sewing to get an even spread of fabric, so I am not happy with the sewing along the outside seams. However, you can't tell these faults unless you look closely. Suffice to say I will not be using this bag pattern again!

Hopefully our friend will like her present. I'll give you an update over the weekend and let you know how it goes.

Must get off to bed as Miss M has just over 3 hours on me now. 

Happy stitching everyone.

Tracy