Pear Berry Lane

It’s One Thimble Issue 18 Release!!! I’m sharing a make from the latest issue.  I always want to represent a pattern at it’s best and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to accomplish that here.  I do think that an experienced “bag lady” would probably think this is a piece-of-cake pattern.  Sadly for me, I didn’t do it justice. What do I think about this project in terms of One Thimble? I think it was great that it was included.  I think there is so much more out there in the sewing world and we can always learn more.  I often find that there are so many new skills that I learn when tackling a project beyond my ability or knowledge level.  This tote is exactly an example of that.  We all need to continue to challenge ourselves.  I hope you will do the same.

For beautiful versions of The Linden Tote and all the other fantastic patterns in the newest issue, check out all the Promo Tour posts!  You won’t be disappointed.  Check out the latest issue of One Thimble here.

Here’s my story of being beat by the bag. How long has it been since you’ve had a firm butt spanking from a pattern? Apparently for me, it had been too long as this Linden Tote nearly killed me.  Now, if you are wondering if an un-lined tote with no fasteners can do someone in, I’m here to tell you it can. Please keep in mind as I share this story, my experience really comes down to skill and is not reflective of the pattern.  However, I’m trying to keep it real from a comical standpoint.

It wasn’t too long ago that the promo photos for the newest One Thimble popped up in my feed.  I, feeling all adventurous after having completed my Joy Jacket, thought I would continue to spread my sewing wings take up bag making with the Linden Tote from Annie Zorzo.  I will assure you that I am not, and never will be a “bag lady”.

I started this tote adventure by reading through the pattern like every good sewist will do.  My first warning sign was that this was labeled for intermediate sewists.  I want to take a moment to say that intermediate sewists and intermediate bag makers may not be the same species.  Also, maybe I should say I’m an expert at beginner patterns and shouldn’t classify myself as an intermediate… but I made a jacket once.  That’s intermediate. Warning number one… ignored.  Reading through the pattern I quickly read “This bag has been designed on an Industrial Cylinder Arm machine.”  Warning number two… given some brief thought… then ignored.

So, the journey of gathering supplies commenced.  I was somewhat overwhelmed reading the fabric requirements and supplies list.  Again, nothing to do with the pattern.  I think it comes down to experience in the bag making realm. A perfect example of bag people versus non-bag people is knowing and understanding interfacing. It is seriously an entire different ball game than apparel.  I gathered what I thought was “probably” the correct thing and headed home to tackle my bag.

The journey of began with printing, taping, and cutting.  #winning  It’s a fairly “simple” pattern.  Very few pieces, so this took no time.  After cutting, I took to prep and construction of things. All seemed well and good, but I totally wasn’t grasping putting in the base.  I ended up hacking with right sides together and binding the seams inside the bag.  Next in the journey was the side seams.  The tutorial offered directions for both French seams and flat felled seams.  Both of these I’m familiar with, because I’m supposed to be an intermediate sewist and all.  I prefer flat felled, but after frustration with the base, I opted for French seams for simplicity (or laziness??).  I sew the first row of stitching for my seams on both sides of my bag and head to the iron for a good press.  It was here that I realized I had the right sides together for sewing the first seam… Agh! Now my enclosed seam would be on the outside.  Utterly annoyed and not even interested in ripping out the seams I gave it a nice press and stitched the seam down flat on the right side of the bag.  Faux flat felled seam. #Boom Problem solved without the seam ripper. It looks like a legit flat felled seam to me. What do you think?

You may also notice that I don’t have the boxed seam on the bottom.  I even bought all the fancy fixings to do the rivets and was too discouraged to even try to put them in. I turned everything right sides together and bound the seam on the inside.

The handles.  Has it caught your eye yet that my handles are significantly shorter than the other versions you’ve seen?  Well, I jacked up my handles and had to re-cut them.  And, as any butt kicking project would be, I didn’t have enough fabric.  In fact, I had to piece together the handles I was able to use here.  The first attempt at the handles I’m sure had to do with lack of knowing this technique with working with the recommended fabrics.  After one failed attempt I decide to do another little hack on the handles.  I placed the handles together and sewed the inner loop with right sides together.  I flipped them wrong sides together and pressed.  Next, I attached the handles to the bag by matching the handle to the bag right sides together. Lastly, I pressed the outer edges of the handles and stitched all the way around.

If you are someone that loves the look of this bag, but you don’t want to do leather or vinyl handles, I think this is actually a method that makes sense.  You can see the end results of the bag handles for the result. (You may also see where I had to piece together the fabric.) Even though this was hacked a little, I don’t think it turned out badly.  I’m mostly just discouraged that I don’t feel like I was successful with this project.  There is nothing more disappointing than feeling you’ve let down a designer and haven’t represented their hard work in a pleasing way.

I hope you’ve made it to the end.  Have you had any experiences like this?  Sometimes the process just gets a little scrabbled.  I’d love for you to share a learning experience you’ve had in the comments.  It will make me feel like I’m not alone.  Thanks again for coming by.