More than Rubies: Tribute

For those that might be wondering, this is my second attempt at writing this post. My first, beautifully-written, mind-blowing, prize-worthy post was the victim of the dreaded auto-save delete. What follows does not read anything like the original -- it is merely a tribute.

So I have "new crafter's guilt." What's that? The undeniable urge -- no, need -- to make really awesome gifts for those you love the most in life because you've been making things for friends and charity, but not family. So I found myself looking for a pattern to make for my little sister's birthday.

Me and my little sister

It was a toss-up between Sara Lawson's Go-Go Bag and her Kennedy Bag. In the end, the Kennedy bag won because of its larger size. My sis is still in college, so I thought a bigger bag might be more practical.

While my sister's (and mine) favorite color is purple, I just didn't find a print that stood out to me enough to go with a purple scheme. I did find a fabric that jumped out at me at Hancock, so I went on my mini-shopping spree. These before/after transformations still amaze me. I mean, this bag was a pile of fabric and hardware beforehand!

So off I went. Things I learned while making this bag:

Trace Your Pattern Pieces: I merely pinned the pieces to my fabric and cut around the pinned template. This resulted in mismatched pieces. This ended up being a huge deal on this bag, and I had to make some adjustments to compensate.

Be Mindful of Your Fabric Choices: As you can see, I chose directionally printed fabrics for my exterior and lining. This made it a little trickier when cutting my pattern pieces. If you want to avoid having to figure this out, go with an all-over print or solid instead. It wasn't a huge deal, but it did slow down the cutting process a little.

Use Your Walking Foot: I got really good at removing and attaching my walking foot. It was a lifesaver when it came to securing the bag hardware. Check out these handles!

It was my walking foot that allowed me to get in as close as I did, but I had to be careful to not sew over the hardware itself. I don't even want to begin to imagine what that would do to my machine.

Pre-read the Pattern: Sure, I scanned the pattern before starting it, but I didn't actually read it. I followed some steps in blind faith because I didn't understand what was happening. Had I read ahead, it would have made sense to me, and I would have been sewing much more confidently.

Test the bag: Before finishing off the bag completely, put some stuff in it! Had I done that ahead of time, my sister would not be texting me to adjust the placement of the magnetic snap. I now have the fun task of figuring out how to move it without undoing it all.

Well, I'm sure I had a lot more insight last time I wrote this, but here you go!