Supertote pattern by Anna of Noodlehead.
It's the first time I try one of Anna's patterns, and I'm super pleased with the final product. Anna's instruction are straightforward and clear! Here are some notes that came to mind while making this bag:
1. My least favorite part of sewing - preparing the fabric, cutting the pieces. This pattern has a lot of pieces. Over the course of a week or so, I cut and prepared my fabric pieces. Then the nice little bundles stayed on my sewing table for a few days while I recovered from that! hahaha!
2. The little squares on the exterior pocket are what spurred me to make this Supertote in the first place. Having ordered some beautiful fabric from Alison Glass (Petal in Eggplant from the Handcrafted range; planning to make a summer dress with that), there were a few samples of her Sun Print line in the package when it arrived. Ooh, I had to make something that would show off these colorful squares.
3. I decided to use an old pair of jeans to create a reinforced gusset layer. Needless to say, when I was sewing the lining to the bag exterior, throught the pleat region, there were about 8 layers of material there. So as not to damage my machine and needle, I slowing (and manually) passed the needle through the fabric. I see now, after a few weeks of use, that the stitches are sort of loosening, so I may have to hand-stitch those spots closed. Maybe. This kind of hand sewing is not my favorite thing! ;)
4. The interior pockets are indeed roomy as Anna describes in the pattern. However, I think I made mine a tad too roomy. Probably because I didn't tighten the elastic enough. The pockets gape open a bit, so they function more as dividers than pockets. At some point I may un-stitch the lining and try to tighten the elastics, but perhaps I'll just leave them as they are at the moment.
5. I used a thrifted and dyed bed sheet as the fabric for the lining. I should have realized that a used bed sheet will have thinner regions in the fabric where head and/or feet will have worn away the thread. Thus, the main compartment of my inner lining bag is a bit thread-bare, it may need replacement at an earlier timepoint than expected. ah well.
6. I always keep (tiny) left-over scraps from a project, thinking to myself, "one day this will come in handy". Well, making this Supertote, I was able to use up a tiny piece of yellow cotton containing orange flowers for the zipper tabs, and a half-yard cut of a yellow paisley cotton that I had bought years in a quilting shop just because I liked the yellowness of it ;) It's yellowness matched (almost) perfectly with the yellow of the inner lining, so yay to using up some of my scrap stash!
7. Altogether, this bag took a couple of evenings to construct. However, it was "in-the-making" for about 5-6 weeks! Ha! A few days after I finished making the bag, we went on holiday. So I brought it for it's maiden voyage, and it's definitely a great travel bag due to it's roomy-ness.
Right, on to the next project! (ignoring the growing pile of clothes that need mending....)
