FO Friday - Bags!

I've been on a bit of a sewing binge, aside from the quilting. I love bags, I really do. I also really love bags that have a frame for the opening. I had made bags in the past and sometimes they worked out well, sometimes they didn't. The recent bags have been working out really well.

First up is the Cavernous Carpetbag from U-Handbag. I've had a 10" tubular bag frame sitting around for a couple of years and was trying to find a cute pattern to use it on.

I've also been an admirerer of the U-Handbag blog and it looks like in the last couple of years, she added this pattern. Her pattern is written for an 8 inch frame or a 12 inch frame. I had to modify the pattern for my 10 inch frame. Thank goodness for math skills and ratios!

The one thing I would do differently? The pattern called for quilting cotton for both the exterior and interior and fusible fleece. I had a home decor fabric that was slightly heavier than quilting cotton and I didn't want to make it too stiff so I used regular medium weight interfacing instead of the quilting cotton. I should have stuck with the fusible fleece since the bag body isn't as stiff as I would like it. Overall, I'm happy!



Next up is a little clutch that I had designed. A couple of years ago, I had made U-handbag's Hex Open Bag Frame. I didn't quite like the size and I wanted a wider bottom. At the time, I didn't quite understand the bag making concept and so I didn't quite get there. I've recently been reading up and watching Craftsy videos and the bag came together. It's a little small but I'm also working on a slightly larger one.

It's a good size for make up or to act as the catch all bag in your bigger bag.

I do know how I made this and my thought process for this bag so coming soon, hopefully Monday, I'll start walking through the pattern drafting process and then the bag making process.

Yes, I sew too

I used to sew, before I played with beads, or before I took up knitting. In middle school and high school, I sometimes made my own clothes because I couldn't find anything I liked in the stores. I've done pillows. The curtains currently in my bedroom I made. But I haven't done much of it in a long time. And all of a sudden, the urge to sew is back. So yesterday, I made this:






This is the u-handbag Hex Open Frame tutorial/Knitting bag. The bag turned out bigger than I anticipated and I'll be using it this week to test drive this one. I did have a few thoughts about the bag and the construction as I worked my way through it:
- Basting is a wonderful wonder thing! It's how I held the bag bottom in place because I wasn't able to find feet.
- The bottom...well, I top stitched both sides along the bottom of the bag and that sort of holds the bottom in place but I'm not very happy with it. If I had feet for the bag, this would not have been a problem
- The bag lining is a little too big. Next time, I would probably take about a centimeter off the bottom of the lining and then continue with the rest of the instructions. As it is, it's kinda bunchy at the bottom.
- If I didn't have feet and needed to secure the bottom, I would do that first before I sewed the open hole in the lining used to flip the bag right side out.
- Pliers came in handy to hold the frame together as I attempted to shove the screw into the hex frame.
- I would make a wider bottom.