This month for the Bag of the Month Club, Sew Sweetness was the designer. The bag was a cute little hand purse which I decided to make. You may notice that I have not posted the bag for February. That’s because I haven’t made it. It’s not a bag I think I’d use, so I just haven’t been motivated to make it yet. I have other projects I’d rather make. I have the pattern so maybe I’ll come back to it.
I’m not sure I’ll use this bag either (it’s a little small), but I’m happy with how it turned out despite a couple of bumps along the way.
For the fabrics, I used some fat quarters from Jennifer Sampou’s shimmer line. This line is amazing and gorgeous and I was glad to have a chance to play with the fabrics. And then I ordered some silver vinyl from luvfabrics on Amazon as recommended by Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness. The quality was very nice. It was my first time sewing with vinyl like this and it wasn’t nearly as hard as I expected! Although still a bit challenging due to the added bulk in the seams.
The first bump was that I forgot to cut the binding on the bias. Since the vinyl is backed by a woven, I think it would have looked better had I done so, but it was already sewn in by the time I realized it.
The second bump was that the lining pieces didn’t seem to quite match up with the larger seam allowance used to make the lining a hair smaller so it fits better. I had to add pleats at all the corners to take up the extra fabric. I don’t think it looks bad and you certainly can’t tell from the outside. So not sure where I messed up there, but I cruised over that bump as well 🙂
A 1 inch rectangle ring was supposed to be used to attach the handle to the bag. Unfortunately, my JoAnn didn’t have any of those (1.25 inches was the smallest available), but they did have this 1 inch slider that I could use instead (because I was too impatient to order some). I actually quite like how it turned it out!
To attach the lining to the to the top, I opted for the hand stitching option. I did tiny little catch stitches.
And here’s another look at the inside of the bag. I’m pleased with how this turned out and overall happy with the Bag of the Month Club so far. I’ve finally tried a number of techniques and styles that I’ve been interested in but never had the chance to dive into.
Looking forward to seeing April’s bag!
