Meadow Mist Designs: purse

Friday, January 30, 2015

Sidekick tote

I have been getting my packing list together for QuiltCon next month and I want to travel as homemade as possible so in addition to the one top I have made (see Tova Top in Chicopee), I decided to make an across body bag so I could have my hands free for all the shopping and fun.

After much searching on the internet for bag patterns, reading comments and reviews, and searching for pictures of people's different versions, I settled on the Sidekick Tote by Noodlehead. Every review I read about Anna's patterns talked about the wonderfully clear written and illustrated instructions and now having used one, I definitely agree.

I made the small version of the tote with the bias trimmed pocket combining Essex yarn dyed linen with a few of the fabrics from the Meadow Mist Designs bundle from Pile O'Fabric:

Essex yarn dyed linen in black (Robert Kaufman) - outside of bag and strap
Midnight Flora in Navy (Cloud 9 Fabrics) - outside of pocket
Script Watermelon (Art Gallery) - lining of pocket and recessed zipper area
Line Scratch in Blue (Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman) - inside of strap
Sketch in Fog (Timeless Treasures) - bias trim on pocket
Branches in Blue (Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman) - lining of bag

There were a number of firsts for me in the making of this bag including:

recessed zipper
magnetic snap
bias trim
purse strap hardware

The tote actually went together better than I had expected, the only real problem I had was that I repeatedly put the magnetic snaps on the incorrect sides of the pocket and pocket top. Having to redo the pocket many times at least gave me some practice adding the bias trim around the pocket so that by the 4th time I got pretty decent at it :) I was the most scared about the recessed zipper installation, but happily the zipper went in with absolutely no problems.

I made a just a few changes to the pattern, the biggest change being the interfacing. The pattern calls for Pellon 101 (I did not have any of) which gives the bag a loose slouchy feel. I really like a well structured bag so instead of the 101, I used Pellon 808 and Pellon fusible fleece on the outside of the tote and lined all of the other parts of the bag with Pellon 808. I really like the stiffness in the finished bag (no slouching here), but it did make for some really thick seams to sew over. The only other change I made was to add an additional pocket on the inside.