Sandra Saddle Bag

Well Hellooo! It's been awhile. My poor neglected blog is still here, and now after the arrival of Miss E 9 months ago, life is finally entering a "new" normal which means I have been slowly able to start sewing again (YAY). This is Sandra, one of the first bags I have sewn since last spring. 

For Christmas, my amazing husband bought me a new machine (a Janome HD3000, which is a whole post in itself, but I adore her). As this machine is a mechanical machine and much more heavy duty, I was able to start playing around with some vinyl.

Using my walking foot (which is a cheapie from Amazon) and remembering not to pin the vinyl, I was very happy with the results of my first vinyl strap!

I can honestly say it was so much less difficult than I imagined. Isn't that how a lot of things are? Much scarier in your head than in real life. 

The pattern is the Sandra Saddle Bag by Swoon Patterns  she was a fairly quick sew, with fairly straight forward directions. I was able to complete it in about an evening. The fabric is an Art Gallery print from the Jungle Ave line by Sara Lawson and the vinyl was from fabric.com. 

Overall, I was happy with the end result, but I am hopeless at reading the finished dimensions of bags and actually translating them to real life terms. I was disappointed in the final size, as Sandra is at best a medium size handbag, and I am forever a big bag lover.

Now that I've finally conquered some of my fears with vinyl, I am anxious to continue to use it in future projects. Happy Sewing!