Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 5

Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 5

This project is taking slightly longer than I anticipated. The fact that although the instructions said use a Running stitch I didn’t leave it at that.

I have a tendency to overfill my Bags therefore I thought best to strengthen the stitching. I did this by adding another Running stitch that ran in between the original stitches.

Pulling Through the Straps

Now I have strengthened the stitching to my satisfaction I pulled through the Straps and the rest of the Bag through the 10cm gap.

Ladder Sewing

To complete the bottom section I closed the gap using a Ladder stitch. I again strengthened the stitching by repeating the Ladder stitch.

Creating the Handle

I could now move on to making the Handle. I took two of the Straps from one side of the Bag. I made a small fold and pinned together at the top.

I then proceeded to sew the pinned material together. This leaves the original 10cm gap on the Straps on the outer side.

Pressing the Straps

The next instruction was to press the Straps. However the diagram and instructions didn’t really explain it properly. It was only when I began to sew using the Ladder stitch that I understood what they meant.

What they were trying to say is press the fold to make it easier to sew together as it wouldn’t keep trying to unfold itself. In the end I managed and completed all the sewing.

Bag Light Blue Side Complete

The Bag is now complete however the stitching at the where to two Straps meet is a little untidy and I may have to do a spot of covering up.

Bag Navy Side Complete 

I think this is my favourite side. Now time to fill the Bag.

Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 4

Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 4

All the Straps have been sewn so I can move onto the next part.

Turning the Straps

Slowly begin to invert a Strap and push through. As the Straps are quite long use something like a bamboo chopstick or a knitting needle to help

Strap Fully Turned

Once you have fully turned one of the Straps continue the process and turn the remaining three Straps.

Turning the Bag

By turning all the Straps the correct way you will also see that the Bag is now also turned.

Matching the Material

The next part is to match both patterns of the material right side together so each you can make the Bag section.

Pinning the Bag

I have pinned the sides of the Bag together ready for sewing. I sewed both sides down to the Bottom.

10 cm Gap

 

At the Bottom of the material leave a 10 cm gap. I found that if you fold the Bag you get the exact centre. Mark the centre then pin 5 cm each side of the mark. This will give you a 10 cm gap in the middle of the Bottom section.

Sew the Bottom part to pins. Repeat with the other patterned material only this time there is no need to leave a gap. When sewing at the Bottom sew directly across.

Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 3

Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 3

This blog is going to concentrate on the Bag’s Straps

Strap Tops Pinned

First of all I put the two right sides of the Straps together on both sides and pinned at the top. This is so they wouldn’t flap around whilst I sewed. It also marked the one centimetre gap I needed to leave at the top.

10 cm Pinned

The inside of the Straps could be sewn all the way around apart from a one centimetre gap at the very top. I could then remove those pins.

For the Outer sides of the straps there had to be a 10 cm gap. I therefore marked it with another pin

10 cm Sewn

I then proceeded to sew from that point along the Outer edge to the curve.

Outer and Inner Straps Sewn

In the photograph above you can see that I have now finished both the Inner and Outer sides of the straps and removed all the pins.

Clipping the Curve

The next instruction was to clip the curved area of the Bag. I had not heard that term before. It simply means snip all around the curve. I did this at roughly one cm intervals on the inside and outside curves

Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 2

Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 2

Phew that took a long time to cut out.

Outer Panel Cut Out

I decided that the easiest thing to do would be to cut out one set of material at a time. I started with the Outer Panel

Inner Panel Cut Out

After I finished cutting out the Outer Panel I cut out the Inner Panel. After that I had to have a break as it was both time consuming and tiring.

Trimming the Panels

I left the bag in the box for a week or so before coming back to it. I had only cut it out roughly next I had to trim the edges on both sets of panels.

Pinning the Panels - Wrong

Oh for heaven’s sake. I had just pinned all the corners and I realised that I had pinned them the wrong way.

Pinning Corner Correctly

I took all the pins out the corners and started again. This time I made sure that I pinned the two right sides together instead of the two wrong sides.

Pinning Inner Panel Correctly

This time instead of doing all the corners at once I pinned one set of Inner Panels as shown above.

Inner Panel Sewn

After pinning the two corners of the Inner Panel I sewed as instructed.

Outer Panel Sewn

I repeated the process with the Outer Panel. I now have one set of Inner and Outer Panels Sewn at the bottom.

Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 1

Oh What a Busy Sewing Bee I Am – 2018 Part 1

I have several projects on the go that need finishing so of course naturally I have started a new one. I am not actually procrastinating I do in fact have a good reason to start this one.

Sew Your Own Reversible Shoulder Bag

Last Yule my brother bought me this Shoulder Bag Kit for my birthday. Now my birthday isn’t until summer but he reckoned with brilliant logic by then I should have had plenty of time to finish it.

Reversible Bag Contents

In truth I had put it aside to concentrate on other things so I thought with summer fast approaching I better open the box and see what was inside.

The kit is by The Great British Sewing Bee – hence the Blog’s Title. Inside was one set of instructions which covers both machine and hand sewing. This is lucky as I don’t have a sewing machine. It also has the material to make the kit.

Outer Panel

Wow, how much material? I wasn’t expecting this much. This is just the Outer Panel.

Inner Panel

The Inner Panel is obviously the same length as it is a Reversible Bag. Sorry folks this is going to take some cutting out so I better get on with it!