Well, first you’ll have to excuse this terrible photo…its been a rainy few days, and the lighting was terrible. Since it was a gift, there was no time to wait for better lighting. hrmph. I made this for my niece who is off to college for the first time 🙂 I used a great tutorial by Skip to my Lou, and though written perfectly, I misread the directions and had to rip out seams two or three times. I was frustrated….at myself. This is only my second bag, so some of the more intuitive things that come after practice, were certainly NOT intuitive to me. But mistakes are great teachers, and I’m sure the next time I go make a bag, it will be a LOT easier 🙂
Mistake #1: step #5: “5. Place lining fabric inside the outside fabric right sides together.” ok. this should have made PERFECT sense, but my pregnant mushy brain interpreted it wrong. I put the lining fabric right sides together, INSIDE the outside fabric which was also right sides together. duh. what I SHOULD have done was put the right side of the lining facing the right side of the outside fabric….
Mistake #2. After ripping out all the seams and turning the bag inside out, I realized again I misread directions. The handles somehow were still inside the bag, not outside like they should be. The directions state: step #6: “Place straps in between right sides of fabric on each side about two to three inches from the side edge.” I don’t know HOW I messed this one up….I totally missed BETWEEN right sides…and had placed them on the inside of the lining….the middle of the bag, not the middle of the layers…duh again. Had to take out the seam ripper AGAIN…not a happy girl.
BUT once I figured it all out, it was easy peasy lemon squeezy…as it should have been from step 1. ah well. I WILL definitely be making many more of these adorable and simple (really) bags 🙂
Fabrics used: Amy Butler–Love–Watercolor in midnight and Joel Dewberry–Chestnut Hill–Chestnut branches in white
Sew La Tea 