This is what I started with when a co-worker asked me if I could make purses for her bridesmaids based off of a purse she saw on Etsy. My plain, black, mock up purse seemed easy enough and I had more than enough time to complete the task I agreed. Currently I might throw up if I see another clutch purse. Okay, I’m completely exaggerating, it was not that bad. The outsides of the bridesmaids purses were a champagne satin and the insides were eggplant, chocolate brown or navy blue to match the color of each girl’s dress. The bride chose an eggplant satin with a champagne lining. I found it easiest to do things in steps. For instance, one evening I cut out each piece for all 13 purses. That was 2 pieces of outer fabric, 2 pieces of lining and 2 pieces of batting…if you’re counting that was  78 pieces of fabric I had stacked up in my sewing room! Next I attached the outer piece to the inner batting. I found it easiest to do the 12 bridesmaids purses and wait until I changed my thread and bobbin thread to the eggplant to sew the bride’s purse together. I tried to minimize the amount of times I had to change my thread and bobbin because…well, it’s annoying!

This is where I started kicking myself for agreeing to do this. I didn’t want to mess things up since the bride was paying me to do this, but seriously…..I’m a little sloppy with the glue. AND she wanted these very beautiful peacock feathers on each purse. After a lot of procrastinating I finally took a deep breath and glued on each feather..carefully. I mean, I painted this glue on with a tiny paintbrush! Then came the really unfun task of putting each purse into the purse frame. In my attempt to avoid getting glue everywhere on the purses I quickly saw that the glue on those feathers wasn’t going to hold. I fixed that with a few small stitches, and ended up picking glue off the insides of purses with tweezers!

I was really pleased with how they turned out, and the bride was as well, which was most important right? Oh yeah, and here is her purse..stunning huh?

I have always been reluctant to sew for others. There’s the pressure to get it done on time, and anyone who sews knows it’s impossible to get things done on time! There’s always so much more you want to do besides that one project you’re working on. Plus, what if I screw it up?! I can handle my own screwed up projects, but for someone else? There’s no screwing up for others! So when a co-worker asked me if I could make clutch purses for her and her bridesmaids, you can imagine how I felt. Now I am screwing up someone’s bridesmaids gifts?! Wonderful! After making a mock up purse I decided to take on the challenge.

My mock up purse took about an hour to sew, and was made from some black fabric from my stash. It was the simplicity of this purse that made me agree to this project. However, I only have 18 more days to finish these purses. Wait! I don’t even have time to be blogging about this!

Yes, 14 months after cutting this bag out I finally finished it. Well, my mom finished it, but I will get to that. First I need to state the obvious. This bag takes time. LOTS of time!! There’s so much cutting and basting and so many layers. It’s by far the hardest and most frustrating thing I’ve ever worked on, but also one of the best things I think I’ve made.

There was a huge push to get this bag done before our trip to Philadelphia for my husband’s family reunion. I wanted to make sure I had a good sized carry on full of distractions and snacks for Elise’s first plane ride. Turns out all I really needed was a sippy cup and some goldfish, but it was good to be prepared, right?

So after making each side panel of the bag came the easiest parts: making the top panel, adding end pockets and attaching the bottom panel.

Making the top panel was incredibly easy. The hardest part about adding the zipper was moving the actual zipper part out of the way so it wouldn’t jam up in my machine. I ended up opening my basting stitches a little early in order to decrease my frustration.

Attaching the side panels is quite difficult, I won’t even try to sugar coat it. There is layer after layer of fabric and peltex.and fabric and peltex! Not to mention that this bag is massive. It jammed up my machine several times. However, I only used one spool of thread and didn’t break any needles, so according to what I’ve read around the internet, this could have been far worse.

Once you have the outside done, you can put the lining together. After dealing with all of those layers, putting the lining together is like a breath of fresh air. I think I put my lining together in about 20 minutes. This brings us to the most annoying part. Hand sewing the lining. The words “hand sewing” are my sewing kryptonite by the way. I hate to sew anything by hand. I always end up wanting to stab the sewing needle into my eye! Lucky for me I had to work 3 days in a row and have a mom who is willing to help. So thanks mom, for hand sewing my lining.

All complaining and hard parts aside, this bag is worth it in the end. I don’t regret not using the piping. I’m also glad that I changed from the fake suede to canvas. I like things that make my life easier, and I think this bag looks good regardless. Will I make it again? We’ll see. But it’ll probably be a very long time.

I’m determined to finish this bag! So last night I worked my little fingers off on this bag. I tried to do this last week, but I ran into a snag. I had my straps all ready to sew and then the faux leather I was using for the straps was too much for the Viking to handle. I’m not really down with the idea of destroying my machine over this bag, so it was time to re-think it. So, I took some of the canvas I’m using for the lining and some Rit dye in dark brown and about 2 hours of my time. So now I have dark brown canvas straps. They don’t match as well, but I’ve decided I’m more focused on finishing this bag than being all matchy matchy.

I was able to accomplish making the straps, attaching them to the main panel and attaching the large exterior pocket to the main panel. My goal is to finish the rest of the bag before our trip to Philadelphia in 2 weeks. It’s possible, keep your fingers crossed.

So sometimes you just have to start over. That Weekender Bag I cut out like 6 months ago is still sitting around in pieces and I’ve decided I’m just ripping apart those two pockets I put together and starting over. It’s that cording…that darn cording!! Then I saw THIS! bag. It’s incredibly cute and made without cording. Can you tell I hate the cording? You can only seam rip so many times before you want to start seam ripping your eye. So here’s to hoping this project goes faster when I’m less frustrated by cording…and hope that it looks as cute!

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.

After a month, I don’t know that I should even call this progress. It’s more like “Amy Butler Weekender Bag – I’m pacing myself…”. After spending two days doing the cutting I took a long hiatus from anything related to sewing in general, with the exception of looking at fabric online. I’ve also decided to start an Etsy store, but that’s equally as slow going as the Weekender Bag. Perhaps my life motto is, “I’m pacing myself”.

So here’s the update: I’ve managed to put together to the two front pockets. I’m dreading assembling the handles and decided to take the weekend off from this project and work on other things that I find more amusing.

That was all the cut out pieces of the exterior fabric only. There was also cutting of the inside lining, heavy weight stabilizer as well as Timtex. No, I did NOT try to line up my patterns as many people have suggested. I am not an anal crafter for one thing, and I also don’t believe everything in life has to be so matchy matchy. I’m sort of a disaster anyways. After cutting a million pieces from this pattern I had to start cutting a million strips of brown fake suede for the prepared cording and handles. Have I mentioned that I am completely incapable of cutting in a straight line, even with a ruler? It looked as if I let my 2 year old niece run wild with scissors (which I wouldn’t do because she’s precious and my scissors are sharp..I like her with all 10 fingers and both of her eyes).

Speaking of the prepared cording, that’s another reason that the bag was put on hiatus. I hated making the cording. I’ve read online that several people have just used regular bias tape to cover their cording. No, not me…why do something to make my life easier? In the end I just sewed the fabric in straight lines and so far it’s worked out for me. If it stops working out for me, I’ll let you know.

Here’s the front pockets..if you are interested.

After reading approximately 23.5 reviews of this pattern online I was prepared to spend hours cutting. What I wasn’t prepared for was spending days cutting. No joke, this is a pattern that requires so much cutting you’re going to start and stop…and start and stop…and by the way, I’m still not done cutting.

*EDIT*
Here is the fabric I will be using: Spinach Tiles from Amy Butler’s Nigella Line and some cheap fake suede I picked up on sale at Hancock. The inside lining is just plain canvas, which I got from re-using an old loveseat slipcover we had lying around the house.