I finished my tote bag today. Now that it's done, I can finally see the result of using the stiff interfacing. As I said before, I had no idea that bag making would be so difficult. I follow LiEr's blog, Ikat Bag, and I have loved reading her recent posts on making bags. Her bags are so beautifully crafted, well-made and functional. I am in awe of her bag-making skills.
Here is what the bag looks like on:
Huge! It reminds me of all of the large bags that Alyson Hannigan carried to hide her pregnancy during the filming How I Met Your Mother.
I like it. It's big enough to hold a large sewing project or smuggle a dog on an airplane. Although, I don't have a dog, so I won't be attempting the latter. Next time I make a bag with a print, I will pay closer attention to how the pattern on the pockets matches up with the body of the bag. The pattern got repeated, but in a less than ideal way.
I liked this pattern, the fabric, and my stiff interfacing choice. When it was time to insert the lining into the bag, I couldn't find the instructions. Luckily, I am psychic and I figured it out.
I'm not planning on needing another enormous bag, but I would still recommend this pattern to anyone who wants a large tote. The design was more stylish than any of the other patterns I saw at the fabric store. I would give one piece of advice when topstitching around the handles. Because of the thickness of the fabric, it was more difficult than normal to topstitch around a curve. I found it was helpful to change my Bernina's needle position to DOWN so that when I took my foot off the pedal, it stayed down in the fabric. This made it easier to reposition my hands around the fabric and the topstitching was more even.