At long last! I am so excited to share with you the project that has taken me a month and a half to complete. My daughter's Messenger Bag!
Yup! there it is. You can see one happy teenager with her new messenger bag. All of these photos were taken with my cell phone, so the quality might not be the best.
This bag is inspired by a bag found in the Windwaker game in the series The Legend of Zelda video games.
The colours and the swirl pattern are an exact replica of the one found in the game. There is a little jewel that goes between the two swirls, and we have to add that. We painted a button gold, and we are going to attach it to the front, at the bottom, between the swirls.
There was many steps to making this bag. You MUST be organized if you are going to sew, and this project really maxed out my thinking. All of the pieces had the same shape of the rounded corners and squared off tops. Some of the cutting directions were not very clear, which left me not too confident when it came to sewing, if I had all the correct pieces cut out.
This resulted in many a night where I would sit there and read the directions for about 45 minutes trying to figure out which pieces the directions were telling me to use next, and if I sew them, what will the result be.
Each piece has fusible fleece on the back of it, which is dreadfully expensive, so I was hesitant to just sew and then rip a seam if it was wrong.
When you sew a dress or a skirt, it is usually pretty obvious what is the front or back of the garment. The assembly of clothes for sewing is usually pretty straightforward.
With this bag, since all the pieces were very similar in size and shape; even with every piece carefully numbered and organized into stacks, it was a very overwhelming project to do.
I eventually had to admit to my daughter that I was stalling on the job because I was overwhelmed.
At least I was able to push through and now she is enjoying her bag to carry her school books every day.
Here are some more pictures of the bag:
Here you can see the detail on the back of the bag. It has a pocket on the back that seals with velcro. The handmade piping goes around the perimeter of the bag.
Look at the detail of the pocket panel on the inside flap. This section alone was a week in the making because it took me forever to figure out what the directions were trying to tell me to do. Once I figured it out, it seemed so obvious, but I had to get my head around the method the directions were trying to instruct me with.
There are side pockets, center zipper pockets both small and large.
Here is the inside of the bag. A zipper pocket in the inside too.
You can also see the detail of the cell phone pocket on the side.
Here is the picture of the bag. The padded handle, all the piping and design.
Steps to an organized sewing project:
1. Select pattern.
2. Select fabrics suitable to the project, based on the recommended fabrics described on the pattern directions.
3. Cut out fabric, following the directions exactly.
4. Stack all pattern pieces in an organized manner.
5. Set up your sewing machine, serger (if you have one) and ironing board and iron.
6. Sew the project step by step, according to directions. Use all notions such as interfacing, seam bindings, zippers, buttons etc. according to directions.
7. As you sew each piece, carefully fold and return the pattern piece to the envelope as soon as it is separated from the fabric so that you dont' loose any pieces.
8. Press seams as required during sewing.
9. When you have finished your project, make sure ALL of the pattern pieces are back in the envelope so that if you want to use the pattern again, all the pieces are there. Tidy up the sewing machine and all sewing accessories.
10. ENJOY your new, finished project!
Happy Sewing!
Cassie
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