One side of the bag
While I began finally to recover from a bear of a cold–and yes, I am back from the coughing, sneezing, nose-dripping, energy sapping two week long cold finally–I decided to do something kind of fun and gentle that someone else did most of the thinking for me. So I finally got around to making bag 1 of Rami Kim’s IQUILT online class. It is entirely made from scraps in my stash. Even the zipper was something I must have bought nearly a decade ago just for this bag, but I didn’t know it then. LOL. The picture at the top is one side. I really love it. I added a couple of pockets in the lining that she didn’t have. I like it so much I think I will use it for my primary bag for a while.
It was a lot of fun, even though I made a lot of mistakes that had to be corrected. I made the top piece, which is cut in two pieces for both sides. First you quilt a 14 x 22 inch piece and then you cut out the corners and cut it into half for the zipper. I cut one corner too big! ? So I had to make another top piece. I had originally used a darker gray, but since I used it up in the first piece, I hunted around and found a similar piece with the same kind of print but it was a lighter gray. Then I cut the bottom piece of lining in two, like you were supposed to do for the top, but not for the bottom, so I rejoined it with the leftover piece of folded strip like the one that you use down one side of the folded Chotsky ribbons. But in the end, I think it came out really nice. Here’s the other side.
In the past, when I made a bag (and I’ve made quite a few over the years), I was never really happy with the handles. Rami suggests leather handles for the bags, and they solve a multitude of problems. I went on a hunt for them, and finally found that Amazon sells them in multiple styles and colors and they aren’t expensive. So I ordered two pair…this gray one and a nice green one for a future bag totally from my stash. I have a couple of long multi-zippers in a roll from Nancy’s Notions that I can use for that one. This is so much fun it could get to be a habit. In the future, though, I hope I am faster and make fewer mistakes.
Sew happy everyone! Make yourself a bag. Hint: Be sure to build it right…interface the fabrics, put the right kind of stiff batting, and use the zipper a little longer than required to make it easier. Adding internal pockets is really easy…just make a lined square piece the right size (figure it out from your pattern, remembering where it will bend or be stitched) and stitch it on while the lining is still flat. Be sure to measure and center the pockets. You can even make a zipper pocket fairly easily. Maybe I’ll show you how in one of my future blogs if you want. I just made patch pockets for this bag and added a couple of lines of stitching to make a place for a pen and a notebook on one side and just left it with no divisions on the other side.
