I managed to finished the Amy Butler Weekender Travel Bag and let me tell you,  this is no fun project. As much as I enjoy making bags, this one was just no fun at all. Don’t get me wrong, I really love the bag and all but the process of making it was just plain annoying. But let’s start with the good stuff. (Click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The Good:
The pattern is well written and Amy explains you nearly everything at least once and for us metric people there is a conversion chart which is very helpful. The Bag has an awesome size and shape and I can see myself use it a lot! It’s definitely big enough for a weekend trip or your sewing machine plus fabric and notions. But why bag doesn’t have some pockets on the inside is beyond me. 

The Bad:
The cutting. It took me 3,5 hours to cut everything. I had to cut 22 pieces for the outer shell, including the facing, plus 11 for the lining because I added some pockets. And then I had to cut some more for the cording. Did I mention I hate cutting? I’m not crazy about the lining, and that you have to sew it on by hand and  I really think it could use some interfacing and should be a tad smaller to fit more tightly. I also would have been thankful for a suggestion what to do with a all the bulk from the seam allowance, because it really gets in your way. 

The Ugly:
The sewing. Because of the interfacing it was incredibly difficult to sew the layers together, and I didn’t even use Timtex, I can’t imaging using an even stiffer facing than I did which was Freudenberg T290. And it doesn’t help that 90% of this project is sewn with a zipper foot.  The hardest part was sewing around the corners and I really wish there would have been a more useful tip than “go slowly” in the pattern. Try forcing your fabric with 6 layers + interfacing + another 2 layers of seam allowance into a nice curve. Good luck with that. Another thing that really annoyed me was that the bottom panel is too long, so I had to rip the whole thing off, shortened the bottom panel 1 cm and sew it on again.

Final Notes: 
The bag is HUGE so I added a zipper pocket and another two pockets on the inside, I highly recommend this to keep your things organized. I also made the handles longer and wider and padded them with some fleece, instead of interfacing,  so the bag is more comfortable to wear on the shoulder. For reference: the pattern tells you to cut the handles 3″x48″ and I cut them 4,75″x57″. 

There is no such thing like a 30″ non seperating zipper, so don’t bother looking for it and just buy a longer one and sew a zipper stop. 

Binder clips are your friends unless you want to bent all of your pins. It’s impossible to pin all the layers together and I was really thankful for the binder clip tip in the pattern, so go and get some.

I added 6 bag feet on the bottom, just because I never used them before and I think they’re cute :)

I used fusible tape to close up my bias strips like suggested here, it worked like a charm and I had one less seam to worry about. For more tips on the Weekender check here, here, here and here.

I know this read like a long rant, but in the end it was worth it because the bag is really great. I just wish it would be more fun to make it, because I really want another one but the thought of going through it all over again makes me cringe. But hey, give me a couple of months and I’m probably crazy enough to make another one :)

I think it’s time for a little game: Guess the mess. Here you see a whole lot of fabric and now you have to guess on which project I’m working on…..

….it’s the Amy Butler Weekender Travel Bag, and the mess in the picture is the fabric that took me 3,5 hours to cut. Argh. If I’ll every make this bag again somebody else has to do the cutting, seriously. Does anybody else hate cutting as much as I do? Anyway, I hope I’ll finish the outer shell of the bag this weekend and then make the lining next week. Now I have to pack up my little sewing machine and get it over to Tony’s apartment and start sewing.  I’m still not sure if I used the right interfacing and my machine is acting kind of weird lately, so wish me luck.

I thought I’d share some of my Flickr finds. I’m totally in love with the mermaid brooches and since I have tons of scraps leftover from the quilt, I’ll probably make some. The orange purse is from a fellow German crafter and I just love the shape and Ikea fabric she used. 

accessories, 2. handbag with black handles, 3. ALMOND SPARROW, 4. pillow!

I would love to make a bag like the sparrow one but I really suck in making pleats and I wonder what kind of interfacing was used here. But I’ll definitely try out the pillow since I’ll have the New Crewel book with the pattern, or maybe I’ll embroider the design on a bag. So many choices so little time.

Sew a fabric bucket - check. And yet another item  I can cross off my Project List. I really fell in love with this little bucket, and I have to hold myself back from sewing another twenty in different sizes. I used some Ikea fabric I originally bought to reupholster my armchair and tried some freehand embroidery around the leaves. At the moment I use every project to practice my freemotion quilting and I have the feeling I’m slowly getting better.  It was a bit tricky to sew on the round bottom, but in the end who cares if it’s a perfect circle or not :)

What else can I say? Go and sew some buckets, they’re really cute. Check here if you want to make one yourself. Or go to my Make something - Storage Boxes post for even more tutorials

Oh wonder, I made another bag. At least this time it isn’t for me but a friend of mine who is turning 33 today. It was kind of hard to choose a pattern and fabric because she has a totally different style and she really likes small bags. I’ll never understand the concept of tiny bags, but then again not everyone is a pack rat like me :)

I used the Jenny Bag pattern, but didn’t add the outer pocket and I sandwiched the handles between the outer fabric and the lining, which looks a lot neater. The fabric is from Ikea and even though it’s a really large print it works quite well with this type of bag.

In return she made a fabulous zucchini cake, and before you make a face, it’s kind like carrot cake and really yummy! 

If you are in the mood for some bag making, check out my “Make Something” posts about bags here and here.

I saw a lot of great knitted neck warmers on Etsy and I really wanted to buy one because, well I can’t knit. But then I thought, hey I can  probably  sew one myself, and there you go I had my new project.

I made these two about 2 months ago and the first one was a breeze, but for some strange reason the second one was pure horror because suddenly my sewing machine didn’t want to sew through the layers with a denim thread and I still don’t know why.

I don’t have any pictures of the process but if you want to make one yourself here is how:

What you’ll need:

• Some pretty wool fabric for the outside
• Matching fleece for the lining
• Fleece of any color for the interfacing (I used a cheap Ikea fleece blanket)
• Matching thread
• Contrasting top-stitching thread (either buttonhole or denim thread)
• Two buttons you like

1. Measure your neck and add a few centimeters until it feels comfortable, you don’t want it to be too tight. Then add another 2 cm seam allowance. In my case 53 cm

2. Measure how high you want the neck warmer to be and add another 2 cm seam allowance. In my case 13 cm

3. Draw these measurements on a sheet of paper to make your pattern (so you can use it again)

4. Pin your pattern to the fabric, the short side along  the selvage and cut one each from outer fabric, lining and interfacing.

5. Layer the fabric like this: Outer fabric right side facing up, lining right side facing down and on top of that the interfacing. Pin in place.

6. Start sewing on a short end about 1 cm away from the corner with 1 cm seam allowance. Sew around the 3 sides and stop on the same short side you started 1 cm away from the corner. That should leave you with an opening so you can turn the neckwarmer inside out.

7. Trim the seam allowance, especially on the corners. Turn inside out and press. The edges and corners should be neat and flat.

8. Tuck in the seam allowance on the opening and topstitch  0,5 cm away from the edge around all 4 sides, starting on the short side with the opening. Since I want this stitching to show, I used a thicker (denim or buttonhole) thread and used the longest stitch available on my machine.

9. Take a break and make yourself comfortable on your couch, because the rest is done by hand.

10. Measure your buttons to find out how big your buttonhole has to be. To do this, take a strip of paper and wrap around the button, measure from start to end. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check here

11. Lay your buttons on the neckwarmer so they look nice, mark the place, take them away and then mark the buttonholes. Make sure they are at least 2 cm away from the outer edge.

12. Since my sewing machine couldn’t make buttonholes this big I had to stitch them by hand. If you can use your sewing machine: DO IT. Because my buttonholes really turned out crappy. If you have to do them by hand, cut really carefully along your buttonhole marks with a seam ripper, thread your needle with the same thread you used for the topstitching and then start at the corner using a buttonhole or blanket stitch all the way around. Repeat with the other buttonhole.

13. Put the neckwarmer on, adjust how wide or tight you want it to be, and through the buttonholes mark the place for your buttons. Hand stitch the buttons to the other side of the neckwarmer.

14. Put on your neckwarmer,  make a happy and prettier face than I did and enjoy the winter.

If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I’ll try to clear things up.