It was my birthday last week! My daughters bought me two books: Fantastic Beasts - illustrated version and Angie Wilson's Fussy Cutters Club - which I've been after for a while!
I was given it on Tuesday evening, on Thursday evening I made two improv panels and before bedtime on Friday I had a finished bag!
Improv piecing is not my comfort zone, and fussy cutting is all new to me. The fabrics I picked were not all fussy-cuttable, but some had nice motifs I was able to include and others were directional and I managed to cut them straight. I picked a selection of navy and coral fabrics. This wasn't my first choice but there's a good reason for it: the pattern calls for a heavier-weight fabric to be used on the base of the bag - vinyl or denim or upholstery weight... I don't have much fabric that isn't quilting cotton, so I raided my wardrobe and picked a paid of jeans. I picked the pair that fit worst, but there's no denying that I could have continued to wear them had I not decided to cut them up! I will definitely be on the look out for some neon pink vinyl so I can still make a bag from the fabrics I had originally picked!
Most of the fabrics are Cotton &Steel with some (fairly old) Tula Pink thrown in and a smattering of Art Gallery and Stoff. The lining is a Sevenberry print I originally bought as a quilt back in a destash, but when it arrived it much heavier in weight that I expected - perfect for a large bag lining - and for this colour scheme! Not perfect for the outside of the bag where I used the jeans because it is white....
I added heavy-weight interfacing to the panels to give the bag structure. But I didn't have any - thank goodness for Amazon Prime... unfortunately the delivery driver didn't get the memo that I finished work at midday and had to get the kids at 5 and really a morning delivery would therefore have been best... as it was, he showed up at 4.30pm. It was quite impatient! I had got as far as I could by 2pm - I'd even added a pocket to the lining which wasn't a part of the pattern!
I had to wait until after bedtime to quilt up the panels and it was at this point I started to realise how big the bag was going to bed - with the added interfacing it was a large piece of fabric that was quite hard work to manhandle through my machine. But final construction was actually a breeze and look at the size of this bag - modelled by Mia for scale! If Jessica wasn't so wriggly, I'm pretty sure she would fit in it!
This is not a Finish Along finish because it was a spur of the moment decision to make it and I don't regret it for a moment!
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