Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Bag from the Underworld, part II

Remember this bag? The one that made me cuss a lot, because I screwed up just about everything? At least once? Well, I said that I'd make it again at least once, because I cut two out when I made the first. And now the time had come to man up and sew the second one. It was actually supposed to be my BFF's Christmas present, but there were issues at the time, so I gave her a raincheck. And since I'm about to go visit her, I thought it would be good to finish it and hand-deliver it.

The outside is a slightly stretchy dark olive twill, I think. It was a $1-2/yd purchase from WM years ago, and I made at least one pair of small Thing pants out of it (which held up really well, as I recall!). I used two strands of black thread held together for the top-stitching on the pockets and attachment of the straps. (For some reason, my sewing machine gets very angry with the Gutermann topstitching thread I have but sails along with two strands of regular - go figure. It doesn't matter what needle I've tried, either.)

The lining is the same Charlie Brown cotton print, interfaced with ShapeFlex interfacing (Pellon). I really like the way the stuff drapes. The pocket is fully lined, with boxed corners and a piece of elastic in the top that's only about an inch or so shorter than the width of the pocket - just enough to help keep contents in place.
I made a large patch pocket on this side, with a zipper at the top. This could be used for cell phone, sunglasses, wallet - whatever. And you can see that the key fob is attached high on the side seam, maybe two inches from the top. I realized that if I have a key leash, then the key fob should be higher for ease of location. At least, that was the rationale.

The magnetic snaps are a little higher than they should have been. I had to remove them to edgestitch the top of the bag, then replace them before stitching the opening in the bottom. I thought I'd left enough room, but apparently I miscalculated. Otherwise, I would have made a double-row of stitching around the top to echo what I did on the outer pockets.
And then a matching key leash and tissue cover. I think she'll really like this gift!

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