Big City Bags ~ Sound Check Bag ~ Take 2

Did you all have a nice ThanksGiving,with lots of turkey and Family?  Hope that wherever you were it was a wonderful time spent with Family and friends!

My last post (just below this one) was all about my mis-adventures sewing up my first Sound Check Bag.  One of the two Bags we could sew up this month for the Big City Bags SAL.

The second bag is of course the Sound Check Bag.  The fabric for the exterior of this one was a gift from my friend Jamie,of busy bee quilts.  She has a great eye for fabric,Thanks Jamie :)!

After all the problems with the last Sound Check Bag I was a little hesitant to cut into this beautiful fabric!  But as they say,nothing ventured nothing gained...

The interior is a pale pink with an almost cream color polkadot.  It is actually pretty cool,as the dots pick up colors,when I had it next to the yellow they almost looked a faint yellow shade.

Happily this time around there were almost no mistakes made.  When it came time to add the side panels they were 2 1/2" short!  After emailing Sara (just an FYI here,she is super about getting back to you,asap)!  She replied to my email within a half an hour.  I realized that I had forgot to round the corners on the side panels.  That was my only issue this time round! (yay)

When pulling fabrics for this bag I wanted to use an accent fabric that coordinated with the flesh/peach color.  This is one of those times when thankfully I did not have anything in that shade,so the yellow it was.  The yellow gives this bag a pop that the other color just would not have.

We went to Riverside Park to take the photos today,because they have set up all the Christmas trees for the season.  I love to go and see them,they are all decorated by individuals/shops that are local.  Some are in memory of loved ones that have passed on.  Some are just themed for the shop that has that tree.  These cute little snowmen are a pattern I tested recently...more on that in a later post.  See this post from a couple years ago,for a look at Holiday Park all lit up at night.

Do Over

This weekend I set aside time to sew up the Sound Check Bag,the last bag in the Big-City Bags book.

What I didn't plan on was all the cutting mistakes...For some reason I just could not seem to get my brain in the right gear.  My fabric is directional,if it was an all over print there would not have been any problems.  The above photo was my first cutting mistake,it was supposed to be 14 1/2" x 18" (hight by width).  I cut just the opposite.

My second attempt,this time I cut the width 2" too short,Seriously?!  Yep.  Since this fabric was from a quilt shop (i.e. not cheap)there was no way it was going in the trash.  So I decided to just try and make it work.

This decision lead to a lot of math(which bty I stink at).  The accent strips,the black on the edges of the bag front and back had to be cut down to 1".  Even with cutting them to half the size I ended up sewing half of the strips into the side seams.

Of course the side pieces had to also be cut down to fit properly.

You can see how the D ring tabs are right at the edges,they should be a couple inches in from it.

The fabric used for the handles/straps,is a faux leather type,so when tying the knots in them they stretched.  This made my top stitching on them(straps) rip out a bit.  The pattern actually called for rectangular hardware,which I did not have.  That would not have mattered though.

The bag should have five nice flat pleats across the front/back of the bag,mine has only three.  So the result is a slouchy bag. Instead of a nicely flat pleated exterior/interior.  Can you believe with all the problems mistakes and math issues involved with this bag,I still love it?  The fact that I was able to take all the mistakes and turn them into a decent looking bag is just a testament to how much my bag making skills have improved this year!  And,that makes me very Happy :)

Not sure how to go about making the exterior bag pieces in the first photo into a bag,but when I figure it out I will post about it.

Happy Sewing!