When we had the Oxbow Sew Day at SueS’ house she talked quite a bit about the different methods of attaching the strap holders. I didn’t do any thing about it for the first Oxbow, but I decided to try to acknowledge the sense of her thoughts in this Oxbow.
I tried to figure out how to add a strap holder that looks good when sewn down and provides added strength for the weight of a full Oxbow. I mentioned this when I started the Oxbow. I was convinced that I could create a support system that would look good and wouldn’t just be the result of my machine being able to sew through many layers.
I did not succeed.
After assembling the front and back Main panels, I sewed a more robust strap holder to the front of the Main Panels.
At this point I was hopeful and pretty convinced I could make my idea work. The strap holder piece sewn to the Main Panel is folded so the raw edge, like the one at the bottom of the photo, is underneath the strap holder. I wanted to wrap it around the back to minimize raw edges on the front and provide more support for the triangle.
This part worked okay, except for the wonkiness of my sewing on the back. I could have lived with that, or redone it.
The problem came when I tried to put the Main Panels together. I couldn’t figure out how to do the same stitching for the strap holder on the back Main Panel while trying to keep the Main Panels together, but out of the way and not hit a piece of hardware with my needle. I didn’t have enough hands.
As you can see, I ripped out the wonky stitching and redid it. I gave up trying to put the whole complex idea together after quite a bit of trying and riveted the strap holder. Was that a cop out? I don’t think so.
I do understand why pattern writing, especially for bags, is so hard. I am struggling to explain to you what I was trying to do!