Boo's Sew Together Bag

I made another Sew Together Bag! And it was way easier! Yay!

My sister has a November birthday. Since I might feasibly be having a baby on her birthday, it seemed prudent to finish up her gift early. My sister has a serious love for gray and yellow, so I cut into my cherished Echo fabric to make her a Sew Together Bag. (You know you love a person if you're willing to cut into your Echo.) When I first started quilting, Echo was one of the first collections to catch my eye, and working with it reminded me of my early days of quilting.

And this is the finished bag. I changed a few things from my first sew together bag, and I don't think I'll repeat any of them. Good experiment, but not what I wanted, you know? On the one I made for my husband, I used home dec scraps and duck cloth for the exterior, which already gave it support. The added batting further stabilized it. For this one, I used quilting cotton and batting for the main panel, but I also used batting to support the side pieces, hoping it would be enough. It works, but they are a little floppy--not the crisp edges that my husband's show.

I chose not to interface the pockets because interfacing and I are involved in a major feud at the moment, and I was using a light yellow fabric that I didn't want to scorch like the fabric I scorched the last time I tried to use interfacing. The outer zipper and batting give it enough structure to keep the bag from flopping over, but it is floppier than my first. Apparently forgetting the interfacing isn't an option for me, at least not when using quilting cottons.

My last change was how I attached the binding to the bag. On my first, I sewed it first to the interior, then onto the front. For this one, I sewed it first to the exterior, then onto the inside. I will definitely sew it first to the interior next time as I really appreciated how much cleaner the binding looked on the exterior of the bag.

The inside is lined with a yellow polka dot that was from my grandmother's stash. I thought my sister would appreciate the family touch, and she had better as I used up all of it on this bag! But it's such a happy fabric too, and I think it gives a nice touch to the interior. And I purposefully used a hot pink zipper so that every time she opens it, she'll think of me! (But I left it on the inside as I know it's not her favoritest color in the entire universe, which seems a bit crazy to me--who doesn't love hot pink as much as I do??? Honest answer: pretty much everyone.)

This is my first finish from my Q4 FAL list. At least I managed to knock one thing off before Vanilla makes her appearance!