Friday, April 23, 2010

Beach Blanket Bingo

There's a bit of a theme to the sewing happening here in the hive this past week. As I mentioned before, beach bags and summer seem to be in demand (though I'm mentally not there yet).  First up is a simple beach bag:

Can't you just smell it? The beach, I mean...the fabric is so fresh and relaxing.

The inside is a delicate red and white stripe that doesn't seem like it would match but it's nice and subtle and just works:

 
And of course there's a zipper. Everyone looooves a zipper.

The beach bag took a few hours.  This next bag took most of the week.  It's made out of Waverley fabric (it's a home dec weight type of fabric) that shreds like nobody's business. Because I like my bags to have some structure to them, I stupidly interlined this with fleece. I say stupidly because there were bent pins, broken needles, and lots of naughty words involved with this bag.  It's not the bag itself--I combined a few patterns I've used before to get the elements the customer wanted, and had no trouble.  The problem came in --surprise, surprise--with the zipper, and with the unexpected bulk.  I do really like the way the colors and patterns work together, though:

 
The fabrics are "Flip Flops" and "Beach Umbrella" in the Taffy colorway.

Nifty hidden inside zipper.

Recessed zipper from the outside.

My only beef with this finished product is how I slightly goofed the zipper.  I didn't bring it close enough to the edges so there's a gap that bugs the bejeesus out of me.  It might be an issue, it might not--but I'm mentally prepared for a zipper redo if she decides she wants one.  Otherwise, this bag is bright, fun and sturdy.  I would use the remainder for a beach bag--I wouldn't need any interfacing and it would be perfect for the beach.  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make this kind of handbag out of it again, though.  It took four nights instead of two and more than once I wanted to trash it out of frustration.

In other exciting news my purse frames arrived!!!!  I would have no trouble spending my weekend cranking out bags for these but I must restrain myself--it's not like I can run to the store and pick up more. I had to order these. From Hong Kong.  Which means foreign stamps, customs labels, and air mail stickers.  You would think that I'm living in 1910 when foreign mail was a big deal instead of in the global age.  Little things, folks.  Little things.

1 comment:

  1. Is there a pattern for the flip flop bag? My daughter is going to start ballet in the fall, and needs a bag to keep her shoes in and I think this would work well...can you let me know?

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