in the bag

A few months ago I bought a few metres of heavy floral fabric at my favourite, now closed, thrift store. It smelled a bit musty but I loved it. It was only $5 to boot, how could I leave it there?



Whatever else was to become of it, I knew that I wanted to make a bag from this fabric. I had a design in mind, but as I'm a very novice sewer, I knew that constructing a bag without a pattern was not an option for me. So I looked and looked. I found a Simplicity pattern that I liked, that was mostly what I wanted, but it was discontinued. Then, one day, I found this pattern. I was in lust. It was perfect. Alas, it was too good to be true. It was nearly impossible to find in Canada and the thought of paying nearly $30 to have it sent from the US made me queasy. So, I put the fabric away and forgot about it for a while.

Fast forward a few months later. In the mean time I'd been on the lookout for a pattern every time I stepped foot in a craft store. Nothing was right. Then, at a closing out sale, I found a pattern. No exorbitant prices. No shipping. No waiting. And it was pretty damned close to the dream pattern -- if you forgot about the bow. Plus it was half price. Sold.

So, you'd think that after all that searching for the perfect pattern, I'd have made the bag immediately, right? Haha. The day I got the pattern, I was headed to the airport for my trip to Ottawa. By the time I got back, I'd sort of forgotten about the pattern. Recently, though, I've started to think about the fabric and the pattern again. I've come up with a million excuses to not make the bag.

Yesterday, in a fit of recently uncharacteristic productivity, I decided I must make the bag, and now. In full disclosure, I did cut the pieces for the bag a week or so ago. I haven't been so good with the follow through lately. At any rate, yesterday I took a notion that I really would like to have a new bag and I'm not in the position to buy one. Necessity is the mother of invention, or industry in this case.







Even though I'm positive that the sewing gods were try to send me multiple messages (broken needles, jammed thread, uneven tension), I persevered. Dammit, I wanted that bag. A lot of swearing and a few hours later, success.





I'm quite pleased that I could follow these directions and make relatively quick time on this project. Although, my zipper betrays me. It's a bit messy and I'm not altogether pleased with it, but not bad for my first attempt, I guess.



And my off to see a play pose: