Sew Together Bag 2 [a finish]

On My Finish Along list at the start of Q4 I had ten zippy pouches listed. This was one of them. And the third to be finished back in mid-November. But because it was a Christmas present I haven't been able to share it with you until now.

This was my second attempt at the Sew Together Bag pattern and it went so much quicker than the first one. I made a few changes as well: I found a great tutorial for adding tab ends to the internal zips at Crazy Mom Quilts which really tidies up the look of the inside - it makes it looks more finished somehow! I also hand stitched the binding down on the outside of the pouch - this looks so much neater than my original bag and didn't take much longer when you consider the struggle of getting the bag through the machine and everything lined up, and allow for the changing of needles when I inevitably snap one. Or two! I also understood the final step in the instructions this time. First time round I was quite tired but determined to finish - this time it was first thing in the morning and it just made sense. And looks neater for it. Lots neater.

This bag was for my Mum. And Mum loves batiks. I like batiks too. Back in November when I made it I was posting on Instagram with the #batiksarentevil. I have quite the collection of batiks left from my Farmer's Wife quilt (and the collection continues to build as I very slowly make a quilt for my Uncle) so pulled out all the blues and green (and a few browns and purple - but they got trimmed away). I used 1.5" strips and pieced them fairly randomly, then did some wobbly quilting.

On the inside I used rip stop for the pockets you see. This is supposedly vaguely waterproof - my mum does watercolour painting and the idea was that if she wanted to use this bag for her hobby, it would cope with damp paintbrushes. This was my first time using this fabric... I attached sew in interfacing to the back - note to self - basting stitches in matching thread next time, Jennie. And once that was done I used it in exactly the same way to quilting cotton - but no ironing!

The internal zippy pockets are more batiks. I bought loads of zips from Rickety Rose - I found them on Ebay but next time I'll go straight to their brand new website. Because I was ordering so much I got in touch to check they had everything I wanted in stock and the customer service I received was excellent. If you're in the UK and don't want to pay postage from the US, then this is a great way to buy zips!

I'm writing this post right after finishing the bag in November, so right now, this is finish no. 8 (though there have been some I haven't shared). Hopefully by the time I publish this there will have been a few more!