A Tale of Two Bags

The little girl next door wanted a bag like her friend's. They are sold at this ridiculously expensive boutique in my little hick town. I see her friend's bag and say, "Oh I bet I can make you one of those!" I open my mouth and these lies just start spewing out. What is up with that?

Anyway, I ponder the bag for over three weeks hoping neighbor girl will forget or her mom will give in and buy her one(like that's going to happen). Anyway, I finally let neighbor girl go through my fabric stash and choose what she likes. I take another day or two searching for the rotary cutter and looking for anything that might resemble instructions online. It's a simple patchwork bag, seams sewn to the outside, if anyone can sew something "wrong" it should be me.

One night I suck it up, I start cutting six inch squares, I apparently don't have a five inch square and since precision is not my strong point, I opt to make the squares a little larger than necessary, because I'm like, totally lazy. Anyway, I cut, I lay them out, I rearrange, I find my sewing machine guide, I fill a bobbin, I thread the machine. I rethread the machine four times before I get it right. I attach my patchwork foot. I start to sew. In less than an hour I have the bag put together. I hand it off to my friend Pam who is going to do the lining and the handles because that is beyond my level of skill. I started to right "skilty". Isn't that what Aragon says when he tries to heal Frodo from the Ring Wraith's blade? I'm still not sure it's a real word.

Anyway, Pam came through big time for me and neighbor girl. Here's a close up the button, Pam had it in her stash. Friends with eclectic stash collections are just the best aren't they?


Here's the lining--Pam you totally rock:

Whoops! I'm missing a pic of the finished bag! Blogger is not cooperating when I try to add it, I'll keep you guessing and you can see it tomorrow!

But I did make another bag because I'm like this master sewer now. I had some five inch charm squares in the stash. These are from the Nell's Flower Shop collection by Blackbird Designs for Moda. I love these fabrics. This bag is for my friend Pam because she deserves it, not that anyone should necessarily be deserving of my sewing skills, but I did my best, pressed my work. I found the iron, under a pile of Rolling Stone and Martha Stewart magazines, isn't that where everyone keeps their iron?

After spending a good bit of time checking out the instructions for lining a bag in my Sew Easy, Sew Fast book, and looking for more directions online, and getting really frustrated last night, this morning I called Pam and asked if she could walk me through that whole lining a bag thing. She said "Sure bring it over, I'll help." I said, "I can't really do that, this is something for you! Surprise!" She said, "Bring it over, I'LL HELP!" I did and she made the lining for her own gift. I know I totally suck, but on the positive side, she loves the fabrics and they were a surprise to her, I never showed her my little collection of charm squares so it was a surprise.

Tune in tomorrow for a picture of neighbor girl's bag!