Weekending? For Pleat's Sake!
I love to travel - or loved to, back when it was just two (or one) of us. Words like 'flight' and 'hotel' used to bring these images to mind:
Now I just picture this:
Image via: denablizzard.brinkster.net
So when our quilt guild proposed sewing Amy Butler's Not-For-The-Faint-of-Heart Weekender bag, I hesitated. Like there will ever be another weekend away where I can pack everything we need into one cute little bag with no wheels! But it's a nice pattern; a really professional looking bag.
Depending on the fabric you choose and whether you quilt it, it can look very Pan Am Flight Attendant circa 1968 or more Vera Bradley (I was going for Pan Am). Luckily my sister, who leads workshops in teaching teachers to teach needed a big bag for lugging around her materials, so this one was for her.
Back in the day when I was sewing curtains for J's room and buying fabric from Freddy Farkel's I ran into the problem of a 'minimum purchase.' It's a little loud, but Mr. Responsibly and I fell in love with P Kaufmann's Tempo Rock n Roll.
Even after the curtains, I still have A-C-R-E-S of it, and luckily my sister shares my good taste and isn't too invested in a super-professional textile look.
The Weekender pattern has been described as challenging, impossible and lethal (there is an actual
. I know I'm not an expert with the sewing machine, but with a description like that I couldn't help but wonder if I was
good enough
. If you have the desire to try this yourself, you should follow the sew-along on the
g (last installment by moi). If you use the right sewing needle (the one for denim) and allow yourself plenty of time, it's actually not too hard, just a little tedious - particularly cutting out all the parts.
While in the process of making this, I remembered that waaaay back in the day, I justified the mandatory minimum fabric purchase by telling myself that I would make purses with the left over. It was the *free*
I had in mind.
I'd actually already bought the lining fabric and two sets of handles for it back then, and shoved the whole thing in the corner, you know, to work on later. Two years later. So while I had the big roll of fabric out, it seemed pretty now-or-never for these purses.
When we found this fabric, my first thought was that my friend Fox would really like it; it's always kind of reminded me of her. So I made a bag for each of us. That also provided an excuse to order the handles in both black and red since I couldn't decide which I liked better.
The pattern was simple enough, and I have not doubt I will be making seasonal variations on this, it's right up my alley style-wise. So here's what I want to remember for next time:
- When making the pleats, the two marks, 3/4" apart should match up (it's a very shallow pleat, the fold is half-way between the marks). In order to center the pleats, I had to do the first one 3" in, and then 2" apart thereafter, otherwise I got 7 pleats. Apparently I'm the only one on the internet who has had this problem though!
- I wish I'd done one interior pocket for keys/phone. I find a lot of pockets frustrating, but one is always a necessity. This bag is too big to just let everything loose in there and ever expect to find your keys again.
- I might make this 2/3 the size next time. Even though I got the longest straps, they still seemed a little short and thin in proportion to the bag.
- I was impatient with sewing on the handles and they are unacceptably messy looking from inside. It wouldn't have been that hard to do this right the first time,
