During the tutorial session on Saturday during Sew Day for the Ultimate Carry All Bag, Lynette showed how to complete the front panel. I had tried and messed it up. Don’t worry, though, I will write a tutorial for this step now that I know how to make it to post here later.
Lynette went further than I had planned. I had planned on just doing the front zipper pocket, which I talked about the other day. She showed us how to complete that pocket, plus apply the pocket to the front, add handles and make the back panel with handles. I am really glad as it makes the tutorials move along faster and I have to create fewer. I am not afraid; the work just takes time.
One thing that came out is one piece was missing from the list on the pattern of pieces we needed for this step. On part 2, pg.16, you need to add L6, an 8×8 lining piece, to the list of pieces you’ll need. This pattern would improve significantly if the designer went through and numbered all the pieces. I know you know that we did that at the beginning, but you can’t number pieces in the pattern that aren’t listed.
One thing I did was use the handles I made for the All Rolled Up Tote, which I ended up not using for that project. I decided that those handles would work for this bag even though they are a little wider than called for in the pattern. One side, which you can see in the other blog post, is pleather and the side you can see above is the accent piece I sewed from Philip Jacobs Brocade Peony fabric to cover the pleather seam.
I had to unsew and redo the back luggage sleeve because I forgot to put SF101 on the back. I thought it would be ok, but decided it was too flimsy. I am much happier now that I redid it, though unsewing takes awhile.
Finally, this project is starting to look like something. With the back and front panels finished, I can see the end of the road in the distance. In some part of my brain, I feel like I am wasting time when I am working on this project. I feel like I could be working on better projects. In another part of my brain, I tell myself that I am making progress, this bag will use up some fabric in my palette, etc. It is so weird. I just think this project has been hanging around for longer than I like and I want to be done with it.
I have to remind myself that one of the reasons we started this was to encourage people to make bags and show them they could do it. Perhaps we didn’t choose wisely with this weird and difficult bag. Fortunately, it will be a useful bag. I don’t know if people will be encouraged to make other bags or be daunted.