One Stray Pea

With the new baby here let’s face it, the Weekender Bag requires too much attention and it might be awhile before it makes it’s way back to my sewing table. However, Favorite Things Annie’s Tote was a nice fit for my current free time. I had cut this pattern out a couple of months ago, and then hung it in the closet with the intention of using it as a diaper bag if the Weekender didn’t turn out well. Here’s what really happened: I finished neither the Weekender bag nor Annie’s Tote and ended up using the Nappy bag. You know, the bag I said would be a horrible diaper bag? It’s really not that bad. However I did want a bag with a zipper. This bag overall only took a few hours, spread out over 3 days.

The fabric I used for the exterior was a green heather floral by Waverly, which I purchased at Hancock’s during a sale for about $5 a yard. The only other place I’ve seen it is at Warm Biscuit, where you can purchase your own for $30 a yard. *Warning* I don’t recall seeing “dry clean only” on the fabric bolt, however this fabric faded a bit when I washed it. Who knows. For the lining I used more of the leftover slipcover in beige canvas. Reusing fabric items is my version of recycling. This pattern calls for an 18″ zipper, however I could only find a 22″ zipper in the color I needed. I ended up thinking that even 18″ was too long, and cut my zipper down to 16″ when it was all said and done. This pattern calls for only 1/4″ seam allowance, as opposed to the general 5/8″ standard seam allowance. This tends to annoy some people, I don’t really care. I chose not to use the interlining for this bag, and it turned out just fine. Also, the directions call for leaving a hole on the side of the lining and turning, I chose to leave my hole at the top of the bag since the directions call for topstitching at the end anyways.

The only difficult things in this pattern involved the vague instructions for sewing in the zipper. Basically there’s a diagram, and if you’re like me and have only put in one zipper before in your life, you might find this step difficult. Usually a pattern calls for basting and then inserting the zipper under the basting. NOT HERE! You just line it up and sew it down. I chose to baste the zipper down, then sew. Also, sewing the bottom of the bag to the two side pieces was not as easy as I had hoped it would be, so I ended up basting the bottom to the sides to hold it together, then sewing. It worked for me.

Filed under: Crafts on August 23rd, 2008