The Amy Butler Weekender bag

The mother Theresa of sewing for others has to be the Amy Butler Weekender bag. There is rather a lot of sewing in it, more if you count how many times you have to unpick and resew those tricky corners. (on average, 6 attempts per corner).

It's an easy bag, except the corners, so that makes it 95% easy, 5% tricky and if you get all Zen about it and accept that you have to unpick each corner at some point you could even say the whole thing is really rather manageable, albeit time consuming.

I added 2 internal pockets: one with a bias finished edge that is open with 2 channels.



The second is one that zippers shut, for all those things you really don't want to fall out if you have to open it in public.



The fabric outer is vintage upholstery I bought on Trademe. The inner is a medium bodied dress cotton which I got from the deceased estate sale. It's actually not stiff enough for the job, requiring additional stitching to hold it firm internally, and had I realised, I would have interfaced it to give it better hold.



This is an early birthday present for one of my sisters. I had to make it this month, my month of saintly generosity to others or she would never get it. Better early than never, huh?

If I was making this for me, I would have made it differently. I would have used the inside lining fabric for the piping, thus tipping it more towards 'whimsy' in style than pure retro. I'm glad I used the black though - it does look better and I thus proved to myself that I could show some restraint and keep to a tight aesthetic if need be.

When it comes to personal style I fall into 2 traps - being carried away by whimsy and refusing to adhere to the constraints of my colouring and figure. I know something is not a good colour but I persist - I know something will not show off my best features and yet I insist on making it. My downfall is not my lack of vision but my lack of discipline.

Oh well, you say, not a big deal, it's just a hobby. Yes, but it's a hobby that I have to wear every day of my life.

Just a couple more aprons to polish off for the rest of the month - and then it's time to say hello to "disciplined December" where I only make things according to the RULES.

The selfless seamstress

Hot Patterns 1040 Bowling bag



Yes, I'm still here! Yes, I have been sick and on holiday. I have also being doing all that cooking by day. Most of it has been inedible. I'm sorry to say it but it's true. Firstly, because I take a recipe and try to make it more nutritious by the surreptitious adding of nuts, seeds, high protein flours, and at the same time, I try to "healthify" it by reducing fat and sugar contents. The results are rarely edible, except by me, my Scott's ancestry forbidding me to throw them out. (now please note, I consider this frugality to be a very good thing, a virtue-but I only wish we had some chickens I could send all that healthy food to instead.)

Still, things have much improved chez nous with regards to the special diet even if the food has been revolting. (mea culpa! Chocolate chip cookies were not designed to be vehicles for cauliflower, coconut loaf will not hide zucchini,) My son's pre school teachers have said they have never seen a child change so dramatically, so quickly. "Gluten" I said "is the work of the devil." Maybe, maybe not. I don't know if the diet is responsible for the improvement.

On to the sewing! Yes indeed this a birthday present for a friend. Of course it was the dreaded Hot Pattern's 1040 Viviene Westwood *inspired* bag that was so difficult first time round and no easier the second. At least the first time round I was making it for me, this time my act of altruism didn't spur me to completion. I want to keep it for myself, actually, because it was a pain to make, because it's totally my style, and there is no guarantees she will actually like it.

However, my son personally picked the fabric for this person, so now I feel committed to giving it to her, which is as good a reason to be generous as any. ( If I find it dumped in the local Sally Army I will feel no ill will in having to buy it back. A student once made me a set of ducks out of paper mache which I donated to our local thrift shop. I bumped into him in that thrift shop where the ducks were clearly on display. He was kind enough to pretend not to notice. Treasure in heaven for him, lord)

Now let's turn to details. This time, in accordance with my own advice, I rotated the bag straps on d-rings.



I made my own "bag feet" by sewing 2 vintage buttons to the bottom:



This is more Nick's liquidation skippy leather, which I topstitched in silver. The fabric is from that deceased estate - that one where the family ran a 3 day sale and still couldn't clear it all:



This is bag interfacing from Smart Dress Fabrics. It's very cheap but it isn't fusible, which means you have to zig zag it to an interlining after you have trimmed off the seam allowances.



Now let's talk bag handles. The best rope to stuff them with is the type with the woven exterior - it feels lovely on the hands. You have to bind it with tape first, then cut in the middle of the tape, otherwise it unravels something wicked:



I used a light denim for the lining and trimmed the pockets with bias strips of the outer fabric:



At the end of the day, I'll say this for the bag - it's interesting, very useful, and lends itself to a really funky look. But make no mistake: it is no walk in the park to sew.

All's well that ends better

Hot Patterns 1080



A number of you asked about the ending of the last post and I did elaborate in comments, but if you missed the end of the story, it went like this: I told the woman my name, watched her face fall as she joined the dots and smirked to myself as she made a hasty exit. Obviously the episode unnerved me, but not overly, because actually her actions set in motion a series of events that lead me to the man I eventually married. So all is well that ends better.

Which is what can also be said of this bag. It's taken me forever to make it. If you'll forgive the pun, the instructions on this Hot Pattern left me real cold. I nearly ditched it half way through it was not coming together in a way I was liking, but I was using more of the leather from Nick's and I'd hate for Skippy to have died in vain. (There is something about sewing leather that brings you so much closer to its origins than say, just buying a leather handbag; it also makes it impossible to throw a bad project out.)

In fact, the perfectionist in me sat down and wrote 2 pages of edits to send to the designer, but all I'll probably end up doing is sending them an email that says, "did you ever get anyone to trial these instructions?"

At any rate, I totally love the bag, as I am huge fan of Vivienne Westwood.

The original:



The Hot Patterns' hommage:





Shall we now have a good look at what they did right? I love the internal pockets, the shape and style of the bag, and its size. It's handy it can be hand carried or over the shoulder. I love that they used the cool parts of the original bag - the shaped handle pieces, and the corner protectors.

Really useful internal pockets:



On the other hand, the handles are awkward and would be much better rotated on D-rings. This construction technique doesn't work so well on such a light bag where the cording is not well supported, and the handles are so big.

The weight of these handles really pulls the front out and they sit awkwardly when the bag is put down:



Also they have you bind the inside with bias tape rather than attach a separate lining. Much harder, much messier. Avoid if possible. Those are my big gripes, but I have lots of smaller ones too - cough cough 2 pages worth, to be precise.

For those of you who have sewed the Amy Butler Weekender bag, it is a much harder bag to sew than that, and frankly it needn't have been. That's the sad part, I could be making more Hot Patterns stylish bags, but I'm too scared to, if this bag is anything to go by.

This bag is my first foray into Spring/Summer sewing, gingham and beige say warmer weather to me. They also say "boring" so I have to find a way to spice this bag up a little. When I first showed this to my husband, he said, "oh it's lovely, it's about time you got yourself your own toilet bag."

The "otagaroo" bag.

This bag is a great "pick-me-up" in every sense of the phrase - it lifts the spirits and being a carry bag it needs to be, well, picked up.

We have moved from cold grey wet days to warm wet grey days so a little colour is just what the doctor ordered.

I made it with the last scraps of my Otago tartan (my hometowm province) and some leather I got from Nicks. Australian readers may wish to skip the rest of this paragraph. When I got the leather I was super impressed by its thick even skin and evenly tanned hide. I looked at the skins a few times, and I know this sounds macarbre, I couldn't work out what animal it had once been by looking at the shape. (I don't look at meat in the supermarket the same way, you'll be pleased to know, but I have been inured to the origins of meat and I am still somewhat hesitant (guilty?) about the origins of leather). It turns out my piece of leather had once been a kangaroo. I find this a little disconcerting. Any Aussie friends who read this far may share this unease. I'll say one thing for it though- it sews up a dream and is great to work with.

I made up the bag in this Burda pattern (Burda 7684). It has some really nice features but I did change construction somewhat since their bag is not strong enough to hold its own weight and I wanted it to be self-supporting. This meant that I interfaced it with bag interfacing and then interlined it with canvas, before sewing in super strong nylon lining. I was grateful that I'd sewed my Amy Butler weekender bag earlier because I stole a lot of her construction techniques in favour of the Burda ones. Burda is still great on detail, not always so hot on instructions.

Speaking of great detail I put on the tab as instructed but I have no idea if I put in on the right end or even the right place. I couldn't figure out its function still being rather innocent in the ways of bag making. The way I've put it on makes it look like a tail hiding a butt hole.




I'm not really an accessory gal and about bags I am especially lazy since it means shifting everything out of one bag and into another. This bag will either get used to death or never at all. I managed to get one shot in before the rain started again harumph! So here it is debuting as wet weather stalwart:

Thank God for the Sallies

Of all 36 pattern reviews written about this bag, the Amy Butler weekender bag, not one of them said, "this bag costs an absolute fortune to make."

We start with a $30 pattern and then we add several metres of bag interfacing (Fast 2 Fuse) at $42 a metre and finish with lining priced out at $35 per metre. I worked out if you used the recommended Amy Butler home decorator fabric with the recommended bag stabilising interfacing you would spend upwards of $300. I did not, of course, do that.

Actually how I came by the fabric is a cautionary tale for anyone who likes op-shopping (that'd be goodwill shopping to my American friends). I sorted through a box of the usual debris at the local Sally Army and sorted two possible contenders - this, a piece of vintage bark cloth and another piece of hand beaded silk sari. I put the fabrics on a chair next to me as I was rifling through the box. A woman approached the chair picked up the fabrics and said, "ooh lovely fabrics."
"Put. the. fabrics. down. Step. away. from. the. fabrics." No of course I didn't say that, but I gave her a look that said it for me.
"oh? Are these yours?"
"grrrrrr."

This flurry of bag activity was set about by the decision to have a weekend away in my hometown this weekend. It is very satisfying to return to the city of my youth with the skills of the last two decades away in evidence about me. Such a simple thing - to make your own clothes, such a big satisfaction to create something totally unique.

The piping is made with the lining lurex, not the easiest fabric to work with:



Credits:
Fabric outer: Sally Army, from their litter bin mascarading as fabric box $10
Lining: Nick's upholstery weight lurex $20
Notions: Smart Dress Fabrics - 1 and half metres bag weight interfacing $18, 4 and 1/2 metres piping $7, Thread $3, Jeans needles $4.50 Bernina shop: Interfacing, 1 metre wisperweft, $12, 1 patchwork template plastic $7
Pattern: purchased on line $30 from All Things Patchwork - Cheryl the owner delivered the pattern personally because she knew I wanted to finish it this week .. is that service or is that service?

Grand total: $112 (that's around $75 US), and that people, was making it on the cheap.

There are no mistakes, only opportunities for hobo bags.

Post editing note: The very talented Judy Ross is the author of the following quote (Sorry Judy! Katherine, you are still fabulous)

If you read the fabulous Blooms Fabric Obsesssion blog, you'll remember Katherine used to have a sub header that read, "there are no mistakes, only opportunities for design features." Well, I can tell you, I have been sewing design features for a long time now.

I couldn't let those lovely pockets go to waste, and worked out how to cut the pants to get the "Hobo bag" Kwik Sew 3312 out of it. That bag needed more pockets anyway, and why let a good single welt go to waste?



From the back, I lined up the pattern along the back crotch length so that I could include all of the back yolk piece. I also LOVE the way it's just got a little bit of butt crack where the back crotch started to veer in. Pa ha ha. Sorry, very juvenile.



Anyway, I have learned my lesson about buying cheap fabric. I went to Global Fabrics and bought some beautiful lovely quality fabric. It was 30% off however, which eased the pain.

Costings: Actually, nothing. The lining was scrap from another project, and I already had the pattern.

Acknnowledgments: The idea to turn trousers into a bag came from Miss Flossy
Her students did some great jeans refashion bags.

Library bag

I hate having stash. I really do. I feel oppressed by it. I have found over the years that the most enjoyable way for me to sew is to find a project and a pattern that I feel excited about and buy that one pattern and that one piece of fabric and sew it from start to finish and then find the next project.

So when Jen from across the road rang up and said "hey, Nick's fabrics are having a $4 a metre sale" the sensible part of me said "no" but the greedy part of me said "yes". In matters of bargain fabrics and chocolate the greedy side of me always wins.

Once I have the fabric (and I never buy more than 2 pieces of fabric even on fantastic sale because they will pressure me the minute they get in my carrybag) then I have to find a project to use them on because I hate having them lie about my sewing room where they can visibly oppress me.

Now the 2 pieces of fabric I bought on sale are the fabric for my trench and this brown wool pinstripe. My MIL also oppressed me with Queen of Thailand silk so I thought I would liberate myself of some fabric immediately by sewing this bag for my library books.



I interlined it with an old wool blanket for strength and durability and finished it with a bookish kind of button. Now my books have a home in our bedroom and can look classy to and from the library.




Now here is the trench fabric. Can you see the lovely copper thread running through it. I tell ya' it's gonna be one classy trench, when I finish it, which will be in about a month. There's a lot of sewing in a coat.



Libary bag: wool outer, silk lining, felted wool interlining.

Pattern : " Sunday Best shopper" by Deena Beverley in her book "Brilliant Bags" which I got out from the library. Go figure.

post edit:

Hmm, yes, you're right. It does need something highly visible to remind me of the due date. Would like to encourage libraries to find other source of revenue other than my fines.

Or is it better to give?

I don't want to draw your attention to this, but the pokey out bit at the side is not like that in real life. This bag is just pulling a face for the camera. Wind changes you'll get stuck like that!

Here is my sister's birthday present. I know she'll like it cause it's pretty much a replica of the last one I made for a give away... (Estelle bag). ...which she liked, and when I phoned her she said to me, "Have you rung me to tell me I've won MY bag," or words to that effect.

This time I used the wool from my "skinny (pa ha ha ... they're size 20... I will not get over that in a hurry) pants" for the trim, and I lined it with a lovely apricot china silk from Christy. That's a nice touch, since my sister also reads her blog, but in a lurkish fashion. (This is not my blogging sister, this is one of the others).





I added the usual doily touch on the inner pocket (my nana signature) and interlined it this time with a heavy interfacing. Then I added buttons at the top to stabilize the pleats and join the three layers.





Scissors back in 3 days. Tra la la la LA. Meantime there is a lot of Burda World of Weird German Fashion patterns being traced.

Estelle bag giveaway.

That this bag has got finished in the last couple of days is nothing short of a miracle. Usually I get about an hour's sewing time a day, when Benjy has his afternoon sleep. He sleeps, I sew, we're both refreshed by the end of it. But the last 3 days he has not slept. Not morning, not afternoon, and awoken screaming every 2 hours over night. Because of a cold. A COLD. Honestly, when males get sick the whole world has to listen to the grizzling and it starts young.

But enough! TMB has taken him out for a walk and so I get some peace to write this. This bag is my first attempt at the Estelle bag, a free pattern available from Burdastyle. Its well drafted, and comes with "instructions." I say that in commas because if you didn't know how to sew the bag before you started you'd be none the wiser after reading the instructions. Oh well, hey, a free pattern and pretty nice of her to go to all the effort of drafting and writing a guide anyway. So I'm not complaining, just, perhaps, warning you if you have any plans to give it a crack yourself.

The story behind this fabric is a funny one. The outer is pure wool, and woven, top quality and only $2 a metre at a designer clearance sale. (US $1 at today's exchange rate, US 50 cents at tomorrow's) Bargain bargain bargain. It was too big to lug around, but I wanted to look through all the stock, because there was a bit of a queue at the till. So I kept looking, but had a nagging feeling, "grab that fabric."

"Ridiculous!" I thought to myself. "There's plenty on that bolt, more than enough for everyone." Still I had that nagging feeling to grab it. So I went back, and got it, and dragged it around with me. The second I left the till, the person behind me took it and said to the saleswoman, "how much for the whole bolt?"

So anyway, my good luck to you. If you would like this bag, leave a comment below. It comes with a delightful ceramic floral broach (Red cross op shop) as shown. The inner is made of upholstery fabric from my scrap stash. The inner pocket is decorated with tatted doily. The outer is pure wool coat fabric, and is pleated along the front.

It's been handmade with exhausted lurve.

Giveaway closes Friday 13, just to show it can be lucky for some. Family and friends eligible to enter.

Post editing note:

I updated the photo with one which shows how the pleats work more clearly.

The sporan bag

Well here it is. It took a little longer than expected due to me not having a sewing room. I cut it out using kitchen snips, not something I'd recommend. 

I had a few "ah ha" moments when I was sewing this. The first relates to me thinking I could be clever and just use top-stitching thread in the bobbin and avoid having to completely rethread and change the needle every second seam. But when you sew something upside down you can't actually see where you are going. As a learning experience for you, I draw your attention to the top stitching on the pocket which veers about half inch away from centre front. Enough said.

It's so long since I sewed a big print that I forgot you need to centre them. Wouldn't this bag look a little more stable if the blue stripe ran down the centre? Just a thought for your edification.

Other than that, not bad, not bad. I believe the queen of loud prints, Ms Donatella Versace, would struggle to top this tartan. You'll be pleased to know that there is still some of it left, should you find yourself anywhere near the Scottish shop in Dunedin. Apparently it's been on the shelf for 10 years, "The kilt maker just can't shift it, it cost $26 000 to have a bolt woven so he's decided not to restock it when it runs out."  

So don't tarry people, once gone, 'twill be lost forever.

Bag: Favourite things little should bag, pattern number 065

Fabric: Otago Tartan, 100% wool, woven in Scotland

3 sleeps

Ok.. here's the first of the bags I plan to make from this pattern. 

It took me 3 Benjy sleeps to make it. After he went down for the night, I cut out the pattern. During his morning sleep, I sewed about half of it. Then while he was happily playing with his toys, I unpicked a seam I knew I shouldn't have tried sewing.

I don't know about you, but I can NEVER topstitch something on one side, catching a hem on the other (usually advice given for attaching collars or waistbands.) One of them always looks bad. I prefer to slip stitch the hem discreetly into place on the inside of the garment. 

But I was in a hurry, and well, things got ugly, despite the badge's stern warning. 

During his afternoon sleep I finished it off with a scant minute to spare. You will no doubt recognise the fabric as being my spotlight purchase and the remnants of that dress. 

The instructions were clearly written for total beginners. One instruction reads, "press seams open" and then it has a picture with the seams pressed open. 

Wow! It's really hard to believe there was a time when I could not have followed that instruction without a picture.

Retro irony

Look at this charming badge I found at the Hospice shop in the village. It is really hard to imagine what its author was thinking. Are they saying "it's time to rethink your wardrobe and beauty regime" or are they saying, "don't get angry"?   I found it amusing enough to enquire about its price, and the woman behind the counter said, "I just cannot sell it to you for more than 50c "  

That's really saying something because they seem to have no problems selling everything else there for an exorbitant price.

Once purchased I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. It had that slightly antagonistic ambivalence that can only be pulled off by the insouciance of youth : there comes an age when you are too old for retro irony.  I have just the right youth in mind. Someone who has very recently had a birthday.  

And here is the vehicle upon which the badge shall be carried.

Happy 20th Rosie! 

The Nanna bag

While we were having a family day at Devonport on Sunday I passed an op shop selling a handbag made out of some very dated orange and brown curtain material. Now dated can be good and dated can be bad. It was marked down from an exorbitant-over-the-top price to half still-a-rip-off-price. But it was the handles my friends the handles. Genuine cane. Could not resist. Had visions of aluminium framed conservatories, smoked glass, bamboo furniture, chintz squabs and pillows with large ruffles. And here is : the Nanna bag. Now isn't that "good" dated?