Shoulder Bag

It's been a while since I made anything larger than a pouch. Making bigger bags is a lot of work. I almost forgot that part. I must be rusty because I jammed up the sewing machine once. It happened right at the end with just 3 more inches to go. Hubs was waiting for me to go climb the staircase (it's a form of exercise). I rushed it a little and got bobbin thread all jumbled up. And my Janome is a pretty awesome machine. It rarely gets the bobbin thread tangled. I have to remember to listen to my sewing machine while sewing. It gives a little warning "ahem" if I'm pushing it too hard.

I've had 1 yard of this very cheerful Ikea print for a while and  I thought it'll be perfect for this shoulder bag.

When I take photographs of my bag at the balconey, my gang comes along.

This time is Little Red's turn to pose with the bag.

Can you tell I'm struggling with the setting on my new camera? The late afternoon lighting is too low. I try many settings just to see what works. Luckily my model is a stuffed doll.

I was very generous with the pockets for this bag. One in front, 2 divided pockets inside and one more zipped pocket also inside. I'm usually stingy with pockets. Tell you a secret. I don't really like to sew pockets.

I struggled to get a shot of the zipped pocket.

Usually when I sew zippers, I baste using large stitches to hold them down. I don't use glue. But this year I want to try other different ways of doing stuff and I used Steam-A-Seam. It's like a double-sided tape except you need to use a hot iron to apply over it to make it stick to your fabric/zipper. It does make it easier to align your zipper.

This is the first of ten bags I'm making this month. 1 down, 9 more to go!