Welcome Back! Today is a busy day! All of that pesky prep work is done and we are going to see our bag start to take shape!
By now you should a completed exterior zipper pocket, handles, and zipper casing.
Ready? Let's sew!
Attaching the Handles:
Grab your completed handles and your exterior panels.
This pattern has two different styles of handles to choose from. I opted for the short style. You may also notice I chose NOT to roll my handles, it's just a personal prefrence, I find rolled handles uncomfortable to carry. Follow the directions to measure and mark the placement for the handle style you choose and attach your handles as directed.
Assembling the Exterior Panel:
We are going to attach or bottom panel to or exterior side peices to create one long exterior panel. Follow the directions in the pattern and you will end up with your completed panel looking like this:
Stablizing and Insulating the Main and Side pieces:
First, lets baste the side exterior pieces to the insulated fleece we cut to match those pieces. Using a scant SA sew around the outside edges of the side panels to baste the insulation to your side pieces.
Next we need to attach our foam to the large exterior panel (DO NOT ATTACH YOUR INSULATED FLEECE UNTIL AFTER YOU BASTE YOUR FOAM TO YOUR MAIN PIECE).
Grab your 10" x 21.5" Piece of foam and center this to your exteior piece. The foam should have a 1/2' above and below to keep this out of your SA. Pin this in a few spots to keep it in place, then flip over and add some pins on the RS of the fabric and remove the pins you added on the WS of the fabric (you don't want to sew them up when we add the fleece in a a moment).
Now that we have our foam secured with some pins, grab your insulated fleece and place this on the WS of your exterior panel, with the foil side UP and the non foiled side against your fabric. Clip this in place all around the outside of the panel:
Sew along the outside edge using a scant SA to baste your fleece to the exterior panel. Your foam should be sandwiched between the fleece and your fabric panel.
Attaching the Piping:
Like I had mentioned before, I am hopelessly lazy and I always use prepackaged piping. Feel free to make your own, or use the premade stuff with no judgment here. We are going to be attaching the piping to the side edges of our front panel. Before attaching the piping, I like to clip about a half inch of the cording out, just so it lays flat at the bottom of the seam.
Just use your seam ripper to cut the last couple of stitches, then slide it past the cording inside. Then snip that last 3/8" off. It's not as necessary on this bag as we don't have to piece the ends together, but this can be super helpul on other patterns that you have to butt the ends of the piping together.
Pin or clip your piping in place. You can also use DST, but I find that clips are my preference.
Before stitching the piping down, I like to change out my bobbin thread to a color that I will easily see and will stand out from my basting stitches. This way, when I go to assemble the bag, I can make sure that I going to have a nice clean finish. If you follow the seam allowance properly, it will happen naturally but this gives me a little bit of extra security it will be nice and crisp.
Pop on your piping foot, or your zipper foot if you don't have a piping foot. I picked up this adjustable piping/zipper foot on amazon for about 8 bucks and it is one of my favorite sewing tools. It's fabulous for zippers and piping. Stitch down your piping using a 3/8" SA.
Woohoo! Now we get to attach the sides. Unfortunately, I think this was the point my two year old got a hold of my phone, cause all my photos for the sides were deleted. The pattern is pretty clear here, make the marks as indicated and pin or clip your side panel at the bottom at at the top edges. Then make a few clips around the curve, careful not to clip past 1/4" from the edge (you don't want this clip near your stitching line). once you've clipped around your curves as directed in the pattern, your piece should ease very nicely around the bag. Here's a shot of the lining done in the same fashion (I do love my clips lol).
Stitch your sides in place as directed in the pattern and your bag is starting to look like a grown up Luxie!
Adding the zipper casing:
This part seems to confuse some people, because it seems more complex than it is. You want your zipping casing RIGHT SIDE against the completed exterior of your bag. It almost seems contrary to what you want to do, but it is the right way to do it because your casing with flip UP on your exterior. See how the zipper is positioned against the exterior. Remember RIGHT SIDE FACING
Pin or clip around your bag as directed, making sure you position as indicated so we have room to install our frames.
Once you have basted your zipper panel, you'll know you did it right if it pops up like this:
You've now completed your exterior! Pat yourself on the back! Tomorow we will construct our lining and finish our bag!
Catch up with the previous days here:
1 comment:
That was so much fun! Hope you do it again . Going to look at everyone else's.
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