This bag had a rocky start, when I had stitched the handles on incorrectly, and didn’t realise the error of my ways until I had finished the last line of top stitching. And telling myself how clever I was with my first finish of the year. Out came my trusty unpicker, and slowly all the lines of stitching holding the lining in place was undone. The handles were stitched down in their proper place, and I was ready to start assembling the bag for a second time.
The embroidered panel was a gift (several years ago) from my pen-friend Carol who lives in South Dakota. She had stitched a design of a quilt shop onto thicker needled batting, and I thought it would be perfect for the front of a tote bag.
And look, I nearly made another mistake earlier on. Just as well I noticed before I stitched that I was all set to sew the top of the bag up, instead of the bottom! Out came those pins, and they were soon put in the correct end. What was I thinking?
That’s not right
I’d forgotten how to stitch the lining in the bag – you know, that tricky way with an opening in the bottom of the lining. But after a quick check on Google I was headed in the right direction. With right sides together I stitched around the top of the bag. Then came the fiddly bit, pulling the bag through the lining, and hoping it was all going to come out OK. And it did – then the lining just needed a little hand sewing to fix up that opening.
Getting tricky with the lining
I gave the top of the bag a press, and after a lot of careful pinning I did a row of top stitching. All done – how does that look for a second time remake?
All done
I’m really pleased with how the bag turned out, and it lovely to finally use the embroidered panel which Carol had so kindly stitched for me. Both the blue floral fabric and the pink lining fabric have been in my stash for ages, so I didn’t have to go and buy anything especially for this project. That's another UFO to tick off my "List of Six". And you can never have too many bags!
Ready to take shopping
7 comments:
Your bag turned out well in spite of it's misadventures! I get those mental blocks sometimes, too, and thank goodness for Google to show us the right way .... but whatever did we do before Google was available. ;)
Glad you got that sorted out. It’s a lovely bag. :-)
you have a clear fine day for your photo shoot.Lovely finish to the bag, and I have also once... sewn across the top!!! It does look wonderful and so ready to be used.
What a lovely finish. A great bag to take fabric shopping, you could fit loads of FQs in that one. :-)
Very nice finish.
Lovely. It will be perfect for taking along to your stitching days.
Great one! Glad to see you stuck to your guns and fixed up your boo boo's. It really looks a treat.
Post a Comment