Finished: A Trio of Project Bags

Lookie here! I managed to churn out some more project bags! There's not much to say about them that I haven't said before. The only thing different about two of them is that I had made a seam at the bottom cause the fabric that I had used has a one-way print. I had these bags cut out weeks ago, before the trip to the Okanagan. My plan was to have a bunch cut out so that I could sew them up while at the in-laws, since my MIL said I could use her brand new domestic sewing machine. I was extremely excited to be able to sew at night while the Munchkin was sleeping, since there was no downstairs neighbour troll to complain and protest against this. Unfortunately, like a lot of things in life, those plans didn't pan out as planned. Oh well. C'est la vie!

The first bag that I made was this pink Echino pig print. I absolutely LOVE all the Echino lines and think that Etsuko Furuya is a genius! I wish I had all the money in the world to purchase bolts and bolts of each print. Maybe I should stop buying yarn for a while and use that money to buy more fabric. Hmmm...

Anyways, as much as I love this fabric and this print, I'm not in love with this bag. Why? Cause the perfectionist in me hates the fact that I messed up the fabric layout. Do you see it??

Yeah, that's right. The pigs aren't facing the right way. They're upside down!! Grrr!! I'm sure this little detail wouldn't bother most people, but it sure bothers me a great deal. Even more so when the rest of the bag is perfect! It's lined in black and fully finished on the inside. My favourite thing about the whole bag? The handle:

The pig is soo cute! I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with this bag, since I know it'll drive me up the wall if I were to use it myself. Those little upside down pigs will taunt me each time I use the bag, and I'm too embarrassed to even sell it. Not even for $10. Poor bag. It's not its fault.

The other Echino bag that I made is this beautiful teal with chocolate brown woodland silhouette print. Like the pink pig fabric, this one is also a home decor weight (re: a dream to sew with!!) that is a gorgeous cotton/linen mix. Can you say yum? I can sew with this fabric all day if I could!

This time I paid attention and had sewn the print the right way up. You can't tell but it's lined in a matching dark chocolate cotton and has a little stub of brown nylon webbing as a tab at the end. Not to sound like a broken record, but can I just say how much I love this fabric?? Seriously! I can't get enough!

I'm thinking of making another one, cause this one no longer lives with me. It now lives in a very good home of another Bitchy Bee. My fellow knitter and True Blood fan (and also enabler, she's the one that lent me all the Sookie Stackhouse books!), Deb had bought this bag last week. I hope she's enjoying it!

The last bag is not an Echino fabric, but a faux bois print. This fabric is a simple quilting cotton from the Joel Dewberry line, Aviary. This is another print that I absolutely love and wish I could find more of. I also have a ton of this in the magenta colourway (of course!) that I was planning on using for a quilt and maybe pillowcases, but now after seeing how this bag turned out I just might have to make myself a pink version. Brett loves how this bag looks like a log and has been hinting that he would love to have a shirt made from this fabric. Um...yeah, no. I've been hoarding this fabric for so long, it's a wonder that I even used some of it to make this bag!

I'm still contemplating whether or not to keep this bag. I enough of this colourway to make another, but I have this weird feeling that I'm the only one that thinks this fabric is cool (besides Brett, but sometimes I can't trust his judgement on these type of things). Anyone out there that likes this fabric too? Or am I the only one?

I still have some more project bags cut out and in the works. I think these would sew up much more faster if the inside finishings weren't so freakin' tricky. I could do what a lot of other people do, and that is to either serge or sew a simple zig zag stitch to finish the seam. No offense to anyone reading this who has done that, but I'm just not a fan of that way. I'm using these bags for knitting projects and I can envision needle tips getting caught in the serging threads, causing them to pull and look messy. I can also see with further use my most hated characteristic of unfinished seams - fraying edges. So sewing a zig zag stitch is definitely out of the question for me. I guess I'll be sticking to my time consuming way for now. Here's to hoping that over time as I sew more and more of these that I'll just get better and faster.

So stay tuned, I'm sure you'll be seeing way more project bags in the near future!