A bunch of sew and sew

Been crazy busy for the past few weeks….some real, some created….but all good! We made an impromptu trip back to Iowa to visit my mom and had a great time. Charlie and the mister are both fun to travel with and neither of them complain too much. We (the mister and I) decided to drive home a different route and we were so happy that we did. Much more enjoyable. While the freeways are great they aren’t always the best, shortest or fastest routes. All of the trucks on the 40 make life just one click away from miserable. Using a divided highway means less traffic, more to see and new (to us) scenery. All of that has absolutely nothing to do with this blog posting but I just had to put it out there. Done!

Now that Charlie is settling into our routine (or the other way round), I have finally had the chance to do some sewing. I had a quilt that was a difficult and unusual project that I really wanted and needed to get completed lest it become a UFO. More about that in a posting of its own, so stay tuned.

I don’t really go looking for projects. I like to let them find me. While sitting in the doctor’s office the other week waiting on the mister, I surfed around on my iphone and found a great bag. We are leaving for Hawai’i in the next few days and I wanted something cute but useful to carry all the travel needs. Like condo info and rental car stuff. Snacks, ipod, iphone and all my other crapola that I am sure that I can’t live without but would never miss if I didn’t have it. Plus, I am sure that the mister will ask me to haul around a few of his items. He always does.

This great bag is posted here: Plenty of Pockets Tote at Sew4Home. I am not going to post my cutting, sewing and so forth of this project because I only made a couple of cosmetic changes and their tutorials are simply fabulous.

I used a gray twill  for the bag body and outer pockets and a pink, green and gray cotton print for the lining. Pink and green thread makes a nice contrast on all of the topstitching and finishing. There are two pockets on the front and back, one in the interior and the main compartment of the bag.

The pockets on the outer body are a perfect depth….not so shallow that everything is hanging out nor so deep that everything goes to the bottom and you spend all of your time fishing around for your belongings.

I finished my strap with a twin needle. That is until I made a ridiculous rookie error and broke the damn thing. I improvised and made it look like I finished the strap with the twin needle. I wanted to be a bit fancy and use one of the speciality stitches down the center to be different. Also, I am only about 5 feet tall and the length in the pattern was crazy. I opted to have a finished strap with about a total length of 36″ which once attached was about a 15″ drop on either side. This still allows me to wear the bag crossbody if I wished but yet not hang down to my ankles.

Another view of the exterior front pockets. Keys, phone and shades all fit nicely in the  bag. Artistic liberty is what allows them to peek out of those pockets.

View from the side. As you can see, the pockets are on the front and back. Also the bag has a nice flat bottom so it will sit on its own. I really enjoyed putting this together. The only modifications that I would make next time is to cut the lining just a smidge smaller, place the inner pocket higher on the lining and sew a divider in that particular pocket so I would have a dedicated place for my cell phone. Those are personal preferences and not an indication that there is a flaw or error with the pattern. This one is a keeper!