I often take the dogs with me when I walk to the mailbox. Controlling 2 little dogs and a pile of mail is precarious to say the least, and nevermind if I have to pick up after them on top of all that.
What I need is a bag in which to lazily stuff the mail. And what the One-Yard Wonders book delivers is a small variety of bags to choose from. I chose this one: nice long, crossbody strap, magnetic snap so no cumbersome closure to mess with, and the details on it are cute and turned out to be simple enough.
This is my first encounter making pleats. I kind of love them.
A few posts back, I commented on the instructions in this book looking overly concise. It could definitely do with more visuals. That would have helped me immensely when I reached the point of sewing the lining and exterior together around the top. It said to “sandwich the strap in between” those 2 layers. Okay…I’m not sure how else they would be. So off I went sewing only to realize what they meant by that while turning things right side out. The strap had to be fed INWARD between the two layers to make sure it would be on the outside of the bag when turned.
Also, my make-shift “ring” – which is actually a jewelry pendant I grabbed in the jewelry section of Joann’s since I couldn’t find any kind of 3″ ring in the part of the store that has all the bag bits – has a very noticeable front vs. back side, which I didn’t note until after I had sewn it on. So I had to slice the short strap in half to fix it. Took that opportunity to taper the ends of that strap to fit better into the smaller hole. Not the best stitching I’ve done thanks to my sewing machine deciding to be fickle with the speed control tonight, but I stopped caring at that point.
This was my first go at working with a pattern, too (explained in previous post).
I’m actually pretty impressed that getting the straps wrong and my ring backward were my only mistakes. I’m pretty tickled with it. Love that print on the fabric, too.
So now that patterns no longer scare me, I supposed I’ll venture forth into more One-Yard Wonders and see what comes about.
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