Sometimes You Win, Sometimes…Not So Much

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I received my two new, coordinating fabrics from Heather Bailey:   Pop Garden Rose and Bijoux Fushia.  To satisfy myself I needed a a quick and easy pattern so I could make something from this lovely duo. 

I’ve been wanting to try out the Buttercup Bag by “Made By Rae” for quite a while and thought this was the perfect opportunity.  I’ve seen this bag all around the internet and the pattern can be had for FREE on Rae’s blog <here>.

It only requires a fat quarter of fabric (hence the popularity) and the bag is really cute!  So, off I went expecting my beautiful new bag to be finished in the hour I had before I had to pick up my kids from school.

 

Let me start with showing you a picture of the finished bag:  Looks good, right?  From far away it does…..

Flickr Tags: buttercup bag

 

But let me show you a close up:

See it?

 

  Ugh.  What a mess. 

So, WHAT HAPPENED?  Well first,  I broke the cardinal rule of sewing – NEVER RUSH!  I was in such a hurry to finish this bag that I barely read the directions (although I did feel like they did skip around a bit).  Since the bag is quite basic, that wasn’t that big of a deal, but rushing and impatience did add to my problems.

Here is where my problem started.  The directions say to place the magnetic snap 1/2” down from the top (of the lining).  I did do this, but had I not been rushing I would have realized that the snap should have STARTED 1/2” down from the top….I put the center of the snap 1/2” down.  This did not give the room I needed for my seam allowance AND for a top stitch.

Of course I realized this when I was sewing the lining to the exterior of the bag.  Now….normally, I would have just taken the time to re-cut the lining and do it right, but since I was in such a rush I thought I could possibly “fake” it.  No such luck.  You see the results!

The top-stitching became a nightmare, and a mess when I tried to sew past the snap.  So much for my cute little bag.

It wasn’t all bad though, I did confirm that there are a few changes I would make to the pattern (which I actually incorporated into this bag). 

• I used fusible interfacing for the exterior pieces of the bag to give it a bit more structure – it also makes the pleating more defined.
• I chose to sew the strap into the bag as opposed to “onto” the bag (after the bag is finished) as the directions call for. 
• I top-stitched the opening of the pocket (I just like the look)
• My next version of this bag will have a shorter strap.  The directions don’t tell you exactly how long to make it, and I feel I made this one too long for the size of the bag.

So there it is.  A project that went wrong.  Totally my fault!  So, take my advice….don’t rush your sewing projects…it just leads to mistakes!

Oh well….At least I got to see my fabrics paired on a finished product and my 4 yr old daughter has a fun new bag to play with!