New Year—New Project

An article by Rachel    3 Comments

Yep. That’s right. I decided to start the year off right. I sewed. In fact it was one of the more relaxing days that I’ve had in a while. (Note to self: plan more relaxing sewing days in 2008.)

I needed one more gift. Since this group of friends isn’t gathering until after the holidays, I actually had time to make a gift. So I present my Piping & Striping Shoulder Bag:

More or less, I followed the tutorial on U-handblog. I have to say that the bag turned out better than I imagined. It just looks good. I think the secret to success is lots of interfacing. The pattern calls for both iron-on interfacing and sew-in interfacing. I thought this would be over kill. Yet I decided to follow the pattern and use both interfacings. I don’t regret the decision. Here’s my tips for following this tutorial:

• Use both interfacings
• The instructions where a little vauge regarding the shoulder strap length. I suggest cutting one length of fabric 6.5″ x 44″ (or as close as possible). Then cutting that in half. The length feels comfortable. I’d also consider making the straps a lot long so the bag could carried across the body. (Does that make sense?) I think the bag would kind of feel like a messenger bag.
• I didn’t have time to order the recommended rings. Instead I made due with rings from Joanns which had an inner dimension of 1.25 not the recommended 1.5″. Consequently, I narrowed the width of the should strap and the strap extension things. All went well.
• I really liked the fusible interfacing in the shoulder straps. I wish I had discovered this a while ago.

Now it’s time to move on to the next project.