Monday, February 15, 2010

For once in my life I follow directions [PATTERN UPDATE]

Hey Donk,

So, you chose the folklore bag for this month's sewing project, which is fine, but I'll admit that I'm a little scared of what's going to happen when Bubba sees another bag in this house.

Maybe it'll be OK if I keep it outside the house?

Between the two of us, with bags for laptops, daily accessories, bikes, Jada, running, backpacking, fishing, computer cables, knitting projects, the gym, pilates, the cameras, groceries and so on - it's starting to look a little transient around here.

Though, on the bright side, if we need to flee our homeland at a moment's notice, we'll definitely have something in which to carry whatever we can grab on our way out of the house. Which, if you're me, will end up being a useless collection of crap that will serve only as amusement when a destination has been reached and we can reflect on the wares to accompany us on our frantic journey.

Probably would be something like the DVD remote (useless even with the DVD), one flip-flop, an empty pepper shaker, two ballpoint pens, our neighbor's house keys and a roll of dog poo bags.

I guess the good news is all that crap would fit into this bag, even if it'd be pointless to carry it all together to one destination.

Instead I think I'll just carry my usual purse fillin's. 

Though the really good news about the bag is that I followed the changes noted on the Storey website and TEE DAH did not end up strangling myself with the purse straps upon finding that the pleats didn't line up right.

CAN YOU IMAGINE?

I can. It would have been awful. Someone might have died. Or at least received a sound beating.

*My virtual partner hides*

But, thankfully, one of our sew~alongers already tried out this pattern and noted the very important-so-you-don't-murder-someone changes which I found through the glory of Facebook.

Let it be known that the usefulness of Facebook is not lost on me. The new UI, though? Every time they change it, I understand it less and say things like, Where the fuck is X, now? a lot more.

Not important, though. 

Back to the bag.

Another change I'd like to note on this pattern is the apparent lack of direction for the four top panels cut from fusible interfacing.

I read my eyes to the bone searching for directions on when to adhere those to the top panels cut from the fabric, but couldn't find any - so I determined that when you attach the fusible interfacing to the other pieces (bottom and front and back sides), you should do all four top panels, too. And that worked out just fine. So you might want to try it.

Otherwise you'll get to the sewing-the-top-panels-to-the-front-and-back part and realize that YAY your top panels are all floppy due to their lack of fusible interfacing.

Not that this is exactly what happened to me or anything.

And you want that interfacing in there, otherwise things could get floppy.

And, not to add a ton more changes in here just to fuck you guys up or anything, but I decided, when faced with directions to sew the two pocket pieces together to create a lined inner pocket that would only fit my car keys and maybe a chapstick, that I would use the pocket pieces independently and create two separate pockets - one horizontal for the ever important keys and chapstick and one vertical for the all important cell phone and work badge.

If I'd had brain power left over after forcing myself to look up the changes I knew existed in the pattern but was *almost* too lazy to go find, figuring out when to adhere the fusible interfacing to the top panels AND THEN prioritizing the pocket placement, I *might* have sew in an organizer to keep shit from sliding all over hither and thither in this beast, but alas, my brain was fried.

And The Fifth Element was coming to an end so I was going to be faced with finding other suitable background movie noise for the remaining portion of my sewing day, so no new changes could be shoehorned into my pea brain.

It's a sad state of affairs when you're left without the patience to sew together two additional pieces of fabric, let me tell you.

MELT DOWN.

Anyway, when all was said and done, and with all the myriad changes and personal preferences worked in, the bag is finished and I even saved the best part for last.

The fabric that you see here, with its lovely muted tones and organic design, was not only resting quietly in my stash just waiting to be used (so I still haven't had to go to the fabric store TAH DOW), but it's also a very special yard of fabric because don't you know that my own sister designed it her very self.

Along with two other patterns.

Which she then had printed on fabric at Spoonflower.com and sent to me for my birthday last year.

Tell me that's not the fanciest birthday gift you've ever heard of short of, like, diamonds or a trip to the moon in a U-2 spy plane.


I'm just glad I finally found a project worthy of cutting into this fabric. Because until now I would just unfold it when I was in the stash hunting around for something and think about a time in the future when I would hopefully not destroy this fabric by making it into something useful and not a total shameful waste.

Then I'd fold it back up and grab something I was less horrified about wrecking completely because, worst case, I could order more and just pay a billion dollars in shipping for fabric that weighs, like, a pound at most.

No wonder there's no room in my head to conceive of simple sewn-in purse organizers, I'm too consumed with calculating the risk:benefit ratio of my fabric collection.

PSYCHO.

Anyway. There's that. The folklore bag is finished and all I've left to do is decide whether I'll keep it for myself, gift it to someone or put it up as a prize for an upcoming contest...

How's your project coming, then? Don't forget to make those changes.

xo
Finny

14 comments:

  1. I want that bag! I am willing to clean your house. I am willing to drive around while you run to play music loudly and honk at mama's wheeling their strollers like a drunk homeless person's cart. I'm on it. ;)

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  2. Hmmm, I didn't make the pleat change and didn't have trouble with the bag, but then again my sewing tends to be pretty imprecise and fidgety, so I probably fixed it without even knowing. Your bag looks great and your sister's fabric is beautiful!
    I'm enjoying the sew along; it's good and motivating, and I definitely need some external ambition lately. I'd like to put my vote in for the origami organizer thing next because seriously, that thing is effed up and I want to try it!

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  3. Cool Bag Finny! I love that pretty fabric -- it says spring. I'd love to make some bags, but like you, we have too many around here, so I bite my lip and carry on looking for something else.

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  4. It looks great! I love that fabric.

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  5. Now I'm back from vacation, I'm ready to start working on this project. I love your sister's fabric, what a wonderful gift for you and perfect for your bag project. Thank you very much for the sewing notes/tips -- they'll come in useful while I make my own version.

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  6. Ooh, I am officially jealous of your fabric. And glad to know I'm not the only one unable to find in the directions when to iron on that damn interfacing. That and all the post-publishing changes I found on their website makes me nervous about trying any of the more complicated patterns in the book since I tend to dive right into a project and follow the directions blindly without putting a lot of thought into whether or not they make sense.

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  7. I am about to start my bag and have one question. Do you have to use a home decor fabric? Has anyone tried the bag with just cotton fabrics? Thanks for the help!

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  8. Nice Bag, Finny! How much for delivery to 95632?

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  9. The fabric your sister designed is so pretty! She's talented too!
    That bag is fantabulous. I need to make a few bags myself, because one can never have enough bags!

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  10. Sara - Really? You'd clean my house? For this bag? That's some deal. I think I need to have a discussion with my cleaning lady. I think I'm getting a raw deal.

    Liz - I almost didn't make the pleat change, but knowing me, it would have been a total disaster - even with my very imprecise and ridiculous sewing skills.

    I've looked at that origami organizer thing, too...there's math? Eeek...

    Anna - Yeah - I have no business making (or buying for that matter) any more bags, but, alas - I have to make it, right? I am hosting these shenanigans! How would it look otherwise?

    Katie - Thanks! I'll pass the fabric love on to my sister :)

    Junie - Welcome home!

    And, I'll add this tip to the post, too - but, this fabric is a simple cotton rather than the heavy duty decor weight called for in the pattern, and I think it worked out just fine.

    :) Good luck!

    Evil Lina - I am so with you on the jumping-right-in approach. I always do that and then get pissed when I realize that there's a major change I didn't know about because OH it's on the website. Annoying. Though, when I checked the site for changes, there were only four or so, which isn't bad for 101 projects :)

    (meanwhile, MY project has no changes, just so you know)

    Tracey - Good question - I should have said something about that - this fabric is a standard weight cotton (just the tiniest bit heavier than quilter's cotton and nowhere near as heavy as decor weight) and it worked great.

    The only thing I might want decor weight fabric for is the straps, but that could be remedied by adding fusible interfacing to the straps, too.

    So - TWO MORE TIPS Y'ALL:

    1. Standard cotton fabric works fine.
    2. If you use standard cotton, adhere some fusible interfacing to the straps.

    Thanks!

    Lisa - hehe - maybe I *will* have to do a contest...

    Claudia - That would certainly seem to be the case in our house :) Thanks!

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  11. I culd really se myself relaxing in that chair right there right now.

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  12. Love the bag. I know what you mean about a house of bags.

    Your sister is very talented. The fabric is beautiful. Perfect color tones, too.

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  13. Thanks for the link to my post! I love your sister's fabric, it's very ummm... Metro. Does that word sound right? It's just what it makes me think of.
    I'm going to have another go at the bag and not get my pleats in a twist this time. If I manage it before the end of Feb I'll post the pictures in the Flickr pool :)

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  14. Here is mine — sort of … well, not really: http://bit.ly/cuSOr0

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[2013 update: You can't comment as an anonymous person anymore. Too many douchebags were leaving bullshit SPAM comments and my inbox was getting flooded, but if you're here to comment in a real way like a real person, go to it.]

Look at you commenting, that's fun.

So, here's the thing with commenting, unless you have an email address associated with your own profile, your comment will still post, but I won't have an email address with which to reply to you personally.

Sucks, right?

Anyway, to remedy this, I usually come back to my posts and post replies in the comment field with you.

But, if you ever want to email me directly to talk about pumpkins or shoes or what it's like to spend a good part of your day Swiffering - shoot me an email to finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.

Cheers.