The Bag that Broke My Machine

My "Cosmo" Bag (January's kick-off to a year of Amy Butler accessories) is finally done, and I'm about done in.

Folks, making my own jeans -- which I did last year -- was easier than making this bag!

Amy, honey, I love your style, I love your fabrics, I love your books, but you are insane to rate this one "easy."

Maybe that's partly because I reduced the pattern at 78%, so the inside handle curve is smaller and less maneuverable. (Worth it, for a bag that will be more everyday useful to me; I don't need a gigundo one very often.) But maybe not. Amy's instructions sometimes seem to be written for ease of explanation more than than for ease of construction. I may not be the most expert or experienced seamstress on the block, but I'm not new at this. I have a reasonable skill set to draw on. Even so, the final steps of this bag kicked my butt.

And messed up my machine.

I was doing the final edge-stitching along the inside handle curve -- with just six more inches of stitching to do before all that remained was hand-sewing the button -- and as we climbed a mountainous pileup of interfaced seams at the corner of the band, something made an ominous popping sound.

I thought I'd broken the needle, but it's okay. I was able to finish stitching, and all's well visually: no horrific nest on the bobbin side. But now there's this kind of swishy sound with each stitch, which means something got knocked out of alignment.

First I'll try replacing the needle (I'd planned to switch to a new one after this project anyway), in hopes that the problem is a slightly bent needle. If that's not it, I'll be taking my stalwart friend in for servicing. At least I'll have a pretty bag to tote along as I drive to the BabyLock dealer. Here's the inside:

Finished dimensions of this one are...

Width at the base: 11"

Across the widest part: 15"

Depth at the base: 4"

Depth at the top: 3"

Height to top edge of center band (at the middle, above the button): 10.5"

Height with handles: 20"

Oh, and I added a piece of heavyweight box board to the bottom, for stability. I slipped it in between bag and lining before completing the final (gruelling) step of sewing the inside handle edges together.

For those just tuning in to this project, here are my comments on:
Binding the pocket edges
Doing the center band my way
Taking a few liberties with the lining

The true test of this bag will come when I use it. I think I will like it, but no way will I make it again until enough time has passed that I've forgotten how tedious fusing all the interfacing was -- or until little elves show up to do that sort of thing for me and to erase from memory the trickiest and most irksome bits.

If you're a beginning sewer and tempted by this bag, just put the book down and walk away. Start with something simpler like the Birdie Sling before tackling this one.

Cosmo Bag - Lining Details

I took a few minutes away from desk stuff this morning to get the main lining pieces for the Cosmo Bag ready to assemble. As usual, I did a few things differently, and thought I'd share those details at the flat stage, while they are easy to photograph:

Changes:

1) As you can see, I added a band detail to the center top of the lining (Amy's version has this piece only on the outside). This is purely decorative. I cut two "band" pieces (one for each side of the lining) from the lining trim fabric. They are not interfaced. I stay-stitched a generous 1/4" inside the bottom curve, then notched the seam allowance* and pressed to the back. The bands are placed on top of each lining piece, with upper raw edges even, then edge stitched along the bottom to hold in place. I also ran a line of stitching just inside the top edge to keep that from shifting when I put the entire bag together.

* If you're just tuning in, you should know that I am making a smaller version of this bag, having reduced all the pattern pieces at 78% on our copier. This reduces the seam allowance, too, so while Amy's instructions call for 1/2" seams, I'm using a 3/8" seam throughout. For a full-size bag, the stay-stitching should be at 3/8", not 1/4" from the edge.

2) I'm using the lining trim print for the interior side of handles (exterior fabrics can be seen here).

3) I cut the pocket for this side of the lining about an inch shorter than the other one. These are deep pockets, and I thought having one side a bit shallower might be useful. On the other side I added a line of stitching in the center to divide into two equal-sized pockets. On this side I moved that line to the side (it didn't show in the pic, so that's indicated by the bright yellow line), for one bigger and one smaller pocket.

On a full-size bag this larger pocket would probably be too big, and I'd most likely have dividing one side into two and the other side into three pockets.

4) I added a fake tag from a scrap of red fabric, purely for fun. I'd say I do this on everything I sew, but truth is I often forget. I'm glad I remembered this time, because it will make me happy each time I see it. Plus, sometimes it's useful to tell one side of a bag (or garment) from the other at a glance.

So that's where I'm at with this as of this morning. I might get to assembling the lining this afternoon, but that's not a sure thing. I'll show off the completed bag as soon as it's done.

Cosmo Bag Progress - exterior done

It took a long time to get to completing next steps on my Cosmo Bag for the Amy Butler Style Stitches Sew-Along, although the exterior is now done:

It will look better when I get around to pressing the side seams, which I have not done yet.

First, there was a slight delay while I contemplated the instructions for Step 5 (attach the bands to the main exterior pieces) then walked away.

It's not that piecing two reverse curves together intimidates me. Stay-stitching, clipped or notched seam allowances, getting one concave and one convex curve to make friends: I can do all that. It's Amy's method that seemed all wrong to me. For one thing, why wait until after you've wrestled the two pieces together to notch the seam allowance, when doing that first makes fitting the curves together so much easier (yes, it does mean sewing a line of stay-stitching before the seam, but she has you do that on the handles, so why not here?). And then, "ease the band around the curve on the bag exterior" ... ?!? Um, no, the way to get two curves to play nice is to fit the concave one (the bag exterior) to the convex one (the band) and sew with the convex one on the bottom. Really. It just goes so much more easily that way. Especially when both pieces have a layer of interfacing fused to them, which doesn't exactly help with that "ease" into place requirement.

I considered giving Amy's way a go, just to be fair to the instructions, but I'm not that kind of a seamstress. I came back to it yesterday and did it my way. Which, after a brief moment's thought, involved staystitching along the edge of the band, notching and pressing the seam allowance to the back and then simply top-stitching that piece into place onto the bag exterior. Quick and easy, no wrestling required. Probably not as strong a bond, but that curve isn't going to be taking much of the weight of bag contents anyway, so I don't expect it to be a problem.

Handles and handle inner edge prep were no biggie, so that's all done too, as is assembling the sides to the main body pieces and attaching the bag bottom (although I didn't exactly follow the instructions there, either).

Pic at the top is where I'm at so far: exterior done, waiting for me to get to the lining assembly.

I did add one step that might interest others constructing this ginormous bag. I like the look of the outside pockets, but they are both narrow and very deep, which strikes me as a poor combination. (Keep in mind that I reduced this bag size, so those side pockets are very narrow for my hand. I don't see keeping anything other than maybe a pen in there, and would like to be able to get it out again.)

So, I shortened both the side pockets by aligning the lined pocket pieces over the bag side pieces. Amy has you baste these in place by sewing along the sides and bottom at this stage, which is the kind of extra step I just laugh at. Plus, if you do that, you won't be able to do this:

I flipped just the top layer of the pocket up (to the left, in the pic; you're seeing the white interfacing side folded back), leaving the lining in place, and stitched a line across about 3" up from the bottom. Flip the pocket exterior piece back into place before sewing up those side seams. Now the pocket isn't too deep, and that seam is hidden, rather than having a line of stitching show across the outside of the pocket.

Cosmo Bag: bound pocket edges

I'm starting to assemble my Cosmo Bag for the Amy Butler Style Stitches Sew-Along. As mentioned previously, I'm using a solid fabric to line the pockets. But I like the detail of a contrast fabric at the top of the exterior pockets, so I used a separate strip to bind those edges. I didn't try to match the strip length to the pocket width, and will trim the excess later.
 
I cut the pocket exterior and lining pieces the same height (rather than the lining being a bit taller, as the pattern dictates), and a binding strip a scant 1.25" wide. Sew one side of the strip to the top of the pocket exterior, and the other side of the strip to the pocket lining (I used a 1/4" seam), then press the seams toward the center of the binding strip, like this: 

 

Flip the lining over so wrong sides are together, and line up the bottom and side edges. Press again, and the pockets are ready to go, like this:

If you'd like the finished contrast a little wider, use a wider binding strip and a wider seam: a 1-5/8" strip with 3/8" seams would probably do it, but I haven't tested that so you might want to do up a little sample before applying to your pockets.

The interior pockets are lined with the same blue solid. I decided to bind those top edges, too, in a different print:

More progress reports to come...



Cosmo Bag preview

I spent most of yesterday afternoon auditioning fabric for the Cosmo Bag (January's project for the Amy Butler Style Stitches Sew Along). Here's one of Amy's renditions, from the book:

I'm determined to "shop the stash" for as many of these bags as possible, and so far project #1 is already a challenge. The stash yielded three contenders for the exterior print, but finding good lining/trim pairings wasn't easy. In most cases the "best" combination wasn't as spectacular as I was aiming for, or I had a great fabric in insufficient quantity. I considered Kaffe's "Big Blooms" in red, which I have a nice large piece of:

... but decided to save it for the "Miss Maven Ruffled Handbag," coming up as November's project (by which time I am sure to have changed my mind). Instead, for the Cosmo, I'm using two recent purchases from Jane Sassaman's "Hothouse Garden" line for the main exterior and lining pieces, with some Kaffe "chevron stripe" in brown, and my fave green leaves for trims:

As you can see, I do not believe in pressing my fabric before cutting unless it's so horribly crumpled it won't lay flat enough to pin a pattern to. Perhaps some day I'll regret it, but so far this particular lazy habit hasn't tripped me up.

It took me hours to cut all the pieces last night, and almost as long to cut out all the interfacing this morning. This is most, but not all, of it. Still a couple lining pieces to go, but I needed a break.

I love Amy's style, but that woman must carry half her life around with her: her bags are huge. Much bigger than I have any use for. The Cosmo bag might be her largest yet. A full-size Cosmo would make a good beach tote, but I doubt I'd be willing to subject what will be a stunning bag, representing lots of time and effort and fabric investment, to bright sun, salt air/water, sand, and possibly spilled suntan lotion.

So I'm making a smaller one. I cut out all the pattern pieces and reduced them at 78% on our home copier. I measured the tote bag I get the most use from, and based on that probably should have aimed for reducing at 85%, but was not in a mood to figure out how to override the copier presets.

With smaller pieces, I was able to make efficient use of interfacing. The book calls for a whopping 6 yards, but I got all my pieces cut from 2-1/4 yards. I am not going to interface the pocket linings, btw. And I cut the pocket linings from a blue solid... why use the good stuff on the pieces that will be out of sight? I like the side pocket detail where the top of the lining is folded over to make a trim, so have cut separate trim strips for binding the top pocket edges (inside, too).

More details to come as I put the bag together. Most likely I won't tackle that until next weekend. First, I have to go plug in my iron and fuse, fuse, fuse a lot of fabric and interfacing. By the time that's done I won't want to look at this project for several days at least.

Handbags for Christmas

I almost forgot to post a follow-up to the sneak peek of bags I made for my mom and sisters this year. Here they are:

A "taxi tote" (Anna Maria Horner pattern from her "Seams to Me" book) made from blue Kaffe Fasset fabric strips, seamed to together, lined with an Amy B. pastel print. I made the bag about an inch wider than the original pattern, but taking a larger seam at the bottom corners, and added a double-layer of very stiff interfacing (no idea what, it's been in the stash a while) between the bag and lining. Mum had admired the Taxi Tote I'd made for myself when she was last here for a visit, and hinted that she might like something similar. Hard to believe it's been over a year since I made the first one, which has turned out to be a favorite, and much-used everyday bag. I like it so much, I might need to make another.

Two "birdie slings" (Amy Butler pattern), the green one is an AMH print, with KF trim. The blue-brown is batiks from my stash that I think play especially well together.

I reduced the (huge!) pattern pieces at 78% on my home copier to make a more everyday size. I added some length back to the strap, since that got reduced, too, along with the bag body and lining, and I didn't want the straps to be too short.

I'm going to make one of these for myself someday, too.

Taxi Tote Done

It's done, and turned out fairly well, although not absolutely fantastic. At the last minute, I decided to use a third fabric for the bias trim: Amy Butler martini bubbles in yellow/pink. It picks up the little bits of pink in the exterior fabric, and the bits of yellow in the lining very nicely, so I'm happy with that decision.

Sewing the bias binding in place by machine in one pass was adequate, but not great. Partly I think because I was working with more and thicker layers. It looks okay, but I wasn't sure I'd be thrilled with the exposed stitching, and yeah, I'm not loving it. On the other hand, I don't dislike it enough to rip it all out and do over the other way (see #2, below).

What I'll do differently next time (if there is one):

1) Make the strap a bit longer; I'm on the tall side, wish it hung just an inch or two lower

2) Use a quilt-style binding: i.e., fold bias tape WST, align raw edge on top, stitch in place by machine, then turn fold to inside and slip-stitch by hand to finish.

I'm sticking with my rule that I have to finish one UFO before I can start a new project. Next up: the "muslin" for Simplicity 2957 is close to done, and looking pretty good at this stage. Whether I will like it enough to wear enough to be worth making from nicer fabric remains to be seen. Which is the whole point of making it from quilt-fabric stash first.

When I finish that I want to make something with sleeves (cooler weather is here, at least on overcast days) from some of the cotton lawn in my stash. I set some (non-sewing) tasks aside, though, to get the tote done, so don't know that I'll get back to sewing for a few days.

Taxi Tote: Plan B

I couldn't leave it alone. I really wanted to get to work on this bag (and yes, that's partly due to the urge to procrastinate on some other stuff on my to do list), and didn't want to wait until I have a new sewing machine (could be months, or longer) to do it.

So, Plan B:

First, I cut the pocket from the curved between-the-strap pieces left over from cutting the body because they are a nice shape and why not use up those scraps. I used two pocket pieces and stitched around sides/bottom RST, turned and pressed, then added a teeny pleat in the center top, and trimmed the top edge with a bias strip to match bag lining:

Then I assembled the outside (underlined with flannel) and lining bags. Here they are, ready to go, including a button loop on the lining:

At this point I left and did some grocery shopping, thinking I was done with this for the day.

Still couldn't leave it alone, so got back to work on it after errands. Next up was the tricky bit. I needed to make a third "body" from the too-stiff-too-heavy interfacing I planned to use. I'd cut it to size, but decided to trim the seam allowance off to minimize bulk.

I cut another piece of even stiffer interfacing to fit the bottom of the bag, and slip-stitched it in place to the SA on the ends. (Here it is, before stitching down. Above it is one side of the bag body interfacing; the bottom, instead of being seamed, will slip below the heavy interfacing piece. Had another pic that showed that better, but it was unusably out of focus).

I used the triple-zig-zag stitch to sew the sides of the interfacing together, just abutting, so no overlap or seam allowance. That photo didn't come out either; I seem to be an even worse photographer than usual today, sorry about that.

At this point I've got: exterior bag, lining bag, interfacing bag. After a tremendous amount of fiddling (the flannel-interfacing combo was ultra non-stick, didn't make it easy), pinning, and a few curses, I got the lining bag inserted into the exterior and pinned in place.

So far so good, and hey, it's got "standup-ability":

Then, more fiddling, adjusting, fussing, and pinning, and the lining is in there, too:

Now I just need to trim all those layers around the body-strap edges so they're even, and sew bias trim around the openings to finish it off (and hold it all together).

I suspect the bias trim might be a bit tricky, too (am still having doubts about my machine's willingness to handle all those layers) plus I haven't cut the bias strips yet. This time I really am done for the day.

Wish me luck with the finishing bit.

Hope to get to that tomorrow.

AMH Taxi Tote

I've cut all the pieces to make this pretty tote from Anna Maria Horner's new book.

It feels disloyal to use Amy Butler and Kaffe Fassett fabric for the first project I'm making from this book, but I'm in "use the stash" mode.

The AB brown (outside) is from a one-yard piece I've had for a while, waiting for the perfect project to come along, and here it is. And the pink KF (lining, trim) is something I bought with coordinating trims/lining/etc. in mind.

The problem is that the pattern calls for "heavy interfacing" and what I've got (sticking with the stash challenge) is very stiff. So I decided a layer of flannel between the outside fabric and the stiff interfacing would be nice.

And I can tell already that it will be. But I can also tell that without a walking foot, stitching it all together is going to be asking for trouble. I want this bag to turn out great, not all wrinkly and slipshod. So now it's on hold. Because I don't have a walking foot for my machine and--since getting a new machine is a huge priority--don't want to invest in one.

So, another project hits the UFO pile. Probably. I'm going to stitch up a test from scraps later (I've already spent more time on this than I should this morning) and see how it goes. But I know my machine and I'll be amazed if it handles this well.

Too bad. Is this button cute or what?

Will keep you posted. I can at least get the pocket made, the bias strips for trim cut. And now I have another incentive for meeting my end-of-year novelling goal, which is what I'm telling myself I have to do if I'm going to earn a new/better sewing machine.

Pleated Beauty Handbag

Here’s the Pleated Beauty Handbag I made following the instructions in Amy Karol’s Bend the Rules Sewing. The fabric is a home décor weight that I bought a couple of remnant pieces of from fabricguru.com last year for a home dec project (will take pics and blog that someday, but not today).

Here's the other side, which I like even better.


The contrast pleats are a rayon imitation linen. Not my fave fabric but the color and slightly nubby, slightly loose weave are a good match.


I’ve already made kitchen chair cushions covers from these fabric leftovers (aren’t they cute!), and still have more left. I'm so tempted to make something to wear from this fabric, but am concerned I will look like a couch. Middle-aged spread is depressing enough without wearing upholstery. Might do it anyway... if a decade ever comes that I pull ahead of the UFOs.


Lined with a burnt-orange quilting calico.

I’m not totally thrilled with this. Left out the “semi-rigid insert” for the bottom when I realized it’s not designed to go all the way across. Sorry Amy K., but that just doesn’t look right to me (and now I know what looked a little off to me in the photos of this bag in her book). And (like the “charming” handbag that doesn’t charm me quite as much as I hoped it would), this could benefit from some kind of a closure, or a zippered inner pocket.

No matter, it’s not for me anyway: gift for my sister (other sister, not the one who’s getting the Charming Handbag; they’re both coming to visit in a couple of weeks, and I felt inspired to make something for them).

I think my main issue with this bag is the proportions: it looks too wide to me. But I do really like the contrast pleats. That feature looks great in every version I’ve seen of this bag (there are tons on Flickr). I might try this again and play around with proportions. Or make a solid box bottom, so pleats are on the sides only.

In the meantime, I’ve got a rush-to-finish novel in the works, houseguests coming in two weeks (which is generating a couple of other projects), some dress project challenges to work out, plus all the regular stuff I should be doing every day. More handbags will have to wait.

Heather Bailey Charming Handbag

My first handbag project: the “Charming Handbag” from Amy Karol’s Bend the Rules Sewing, made from several Heather Bailey “Pop Garden” fat quarters. Pretty easy to do, once I got my hands on some flannel for the facing.

If I’d made this for myself, I would have used the interior fabric on the outside, but this version’s a gift for my sister who I think will like the green rose print better.

I enjoyed making it, and am proud of myself for following the pattern and directions diligently, for a change. Other than adjusting the scale to make sure I could get both front and back pieces from one FQ, that is. I had a lot of ideas of what I could do differently, but decided to challenge myself to make the original first without messing around with it, and then see what I might want to change.

Couldn’t help myself, though, had to add a little patch pocket on the inside. Every purse should have an interior pocket, don’t you think?

Here’s how it will look in action.

If I ever make this again, I would add a closure of some kind. It gapes open: not a great feature in a purse.

And I do think a band of ribbon trim, as Amy K suggests and shows, would be nicer. But my trim selection is dismal at the moment. Got a couple of nice things in a swap, but they’re not right for this fabric. If I can find something appropriate before my sister shows up for a visit next month I’ll might hand-stitch an embellishment to the front. A fabric rose might be pretty, not that I have a clue how to make one. A few minutes with Google would probably take care of that.

Bottom line, I’m not sure I like it enough to make another one, not with so many other handbag possibilities out there and in my head. But it’s cute enough. I’ll call it a successful start at handbag production.