Saturday, January 25, 2014

"Make Me Up Before You Go-Go"

I finally get to show you my latest sewing project! It's called the Make Me Up Before You Go-Go bag, and the pattern is by the very talented Erin Erickson. Here's my little bag:


The body of it measures about 6 inches high by 10 inches wide.

I took a few pics while I was working on it, just to give you an idea of what went into it. It involved a little bit of quilting! This white flower on the one end, as well as the rest of the bigger flowers are all quilted. It was fun to stitch around them!


The main reason I decided to do this bag first (rather than a different one out of that green fabric) is because it called for Soft and Stable interfacing, which I'd never tried before, and I wanted to see what it was like before I tried putting it into any other bag. It's kind of foamy:


I liked it a lot! It was easy to sew, very nice and puffy for quilting, and flexible yet gave a lot of stability to the sides of the bag. I will definitely be using it again!

The hardest part of the whole project (other than my usual decision-making on fabrics, etc.) was putting the binding around the corners on the ends. This is what I was dealing with, lotsa layers:


The Wonder Clips were a Wonder-ful help. I think the best part of using them was that I wasn't repeatedly running my hand into the ends of pins and trying to keep from bleeding on the fabric. :)


Here's a closeup of some more of the quilting:


The bag opens nice and wide, so you can see what you've got in there. It has a zippered top, a divided pocket on one side of the inside,


and a zippered pocket on the other side:


Here's how the other end (my best one) turned out:


I made this cute little bag to keep for myself! I plan to use it to store some of the helpful little tools I've collected along the way that are now cluttering a table top but don't get used very often. This will be the perfect place for them.


In case anyone's wondering about the wicked-looking tools, that's my applique scissors, my sixth-finger-stiletto, and a hemostat that I used for stuffing dolls. The fabric I used is called Wildflower, and it's from the Dusk line of Jess's Outside Oslo collection.

I did a bit more of a pattern review for Jess's blog, so if you're interested, head on over there to read it.

12 comments:

Rhonda said...

Nice job on this very cute bag! Thanks for the info on the wonder clips. They are new to be but they look useful for lots of sewing projects

annie dee said...

So lovely. I love the way you fussy cut that gorgeous fabric then highlighted it even further by quilting the flowers. love the choice of bag too. i'll check out erin's tutorials.

Erin @ Dog Under My Desk said...

Wonder clips are the best :) I absolutely love the quilting, and the teal is totally awesome. Thank you for posting your review! <3

Anonymous said...

The plush interfacing sounds great and would be handy for a lot of bags I want to try making.

Grandma G said...

Thanks, everybody! :)

Debbie said...

What a fun pouch! I have not used Soft & Stable yet, but have wanted to try. Perfect quilting. ;-)

annie dee said...

And by the way, I think I used this same soft and stable or similar in a purse I made for myself. I don't remember if it had exactly that name though. But it looks the same as in that shot of the unfinished end of your bag. It is great stuff!

Grandma G said...

Thanks, Debbie!

Yes, I really like that S&S, Annie! Can't wait to try it in something else!

Vera said...

That is pretty cute bag!

Grandma G said...

Thanks, Vera!

Steph Zerbe said...

Cute, cute, cute. Love the detail you added with the flower. Great fabric and great pics. I need to get some clips!

Grandma G said...

Thanks, Steph! Yes, those clips are so handy!