Apple Print Patchwork Bag

So. I had gotten to the point where most of the remaining apple print was in the form of unavoidable odd scraps left from all of the other things I'd made.

What do you I do with odd scraps? ...well, normally, my answer is "squirrel them away for later," but my small piece knit fabric drawer was very very full, so I decided to grab other pinks and greens from there and make something from patchwork.

Now, while I do very much like the patchwork cardigan I made from knit fabrics last year, I felt like the fact that I have already made a cardigan (two, if you count the not-so-successful first attempt), a motorcycle jacket, and a vest from the apple print meant I had plenty of apple print options for the upper body, and the two skirts were literally good coverage for the lower, so it wasn't time for another patchwork skirt.

I eventually remembered the Very 1990s bag pattern I'd gotten from the craft thrift store, McCall's 8705

 

The messenger bag in view C was the whole reason I'd picked this pattern--yes, I can and have figured out how to make messenger bags without anything but my own imagination, but sometimes it's nice not to have to think so much.

Especially when I was going to add the over-complication of patchwork to the project. 

And that's when I discovered that whoever had owned this pattern before had not put the pieces for view A back in the envelope, nor had they returned the first page of the instructions, which is where the yardage requirements are (the back of the envelope has full color photos of the bags in different fabrics than the front views.) (There were also pieces from a completely different bag pattern in there.)  The missing yardage requirements (or anything relating to view A) weren't a problem for this project, because the whole thing about making patchwork specifically to make other things is that you only need to assemble as much as you need to cover the pattern pieces.

I did later find a listing for the pattern with a picture of the yardage requirements, and noted them for the messenger bag, which is, honestly, the only one of these I'll probably ever make.  Beyond the added labor of the patchwork (and issues caused by the bulk of medium weight knit patchwork), this was a fairly easy thing to make.

 

And I got to use New Things, too!

In addition to the joy of being able to cut all of the patches using the new die cutter--using the 60mm die--I also got a 5km spool of tex 24 polyester core thread and a proper cone stand to use it with my sewing machine.  I was excited to be able to get so much more thread on the bobbin than my normal beloved tex 40 thread.  I was able to sew all of the patchwork in this project (including a lot of seams between patches that didn't end up in the finished piece), make the continuous bias tape, sew the seam on the strap, and baste all of the pocket layers together--plus make a quick little patchwork doll dress (patches and construction)--without running out of bobbin thread.  Technically. The last part I wanted to sew with the thinner thread finished with about one inch of thread tail left.  Still, it was wonderful to go so far without having to reload the bobbin.

Of course, I can't avoid talking about how I overcomplicated this, not by deciding to make it from patchwork as much as by deciding to treat the patchwork as something to be pattern matched, more or less. 

I started by laying out the front flap, then, after it was sewn together, laying out the layers under it so the fabrics would match across the edges, since the patchwork piece ended up wider than the flap pattern piece, so I had to cut the side patches narrower.

I did not, at that point, consider how much the bias binding would obscure things.

 

The above image is with the flap slightly askew, to show of the matching.  Not only is that matching not really visible when the bag is hanging naturally, but, also...I forgot the fact that the flap is supposed to hang from the back of the bag, and I didn't account for the depth of the bag itself.

I decided to compensate by adding a strip along the top pf the flap, but I got confused about what patches would be near what other patches and thought the alternating sequence would be off, so I used a strip of solid fabric up there, with a line of stitching through all layers to encourage it to fold where the solid meets the patchwork.  Maybe.

I also used a piece of solid fabric for the second pocket, since most of it wouldn't be visible. For the innermost layer of the front of the bag, I only pieced the top, leaving the area behind the pockets as solid fabric as well.  This was done both to save some time from piecing everything, and also to use up just a little more of the remaining larger bits of the apple print.

The pattern has the lining attached to the top of the bag with a normal seam (which also attaches the flap); I decided it would look better with some bias binding applied on that edge, too.

Since I had so many scraps of the apple print, I had decided that I would alternate every other fabric with the apple print, which also made it relatively easy to start sewing things together--just sew an apple print to something else, move on and do it again.

I ended up using about 157 patches in  this bag, but that wasn't all I sewed together--I had initially made the strap from patches, but I was very unhappy with how lumpy it was, and didn't trust how stretchy it was, either.

However, as is typical of me, I didn't get the idea to make the strap from the same fabric as the bias binding--or, even, to use that fabric as the bias binding at all--until after I had picked it to be the lining fabric.

Like, "laying in bed, thinking about how terrible the patchwork strap was...wait...I can use the lining fabric! but I need to go to sleep first" amounts of 'after.'

The pink stripe fabric had been curtains I'd made a few years ago, replaced by various other curtains I made last year.  Although the tablecloth made from it had become unsalvageably stained, I did put the curtains back into the fabric stash.  I think they worked well for the lining here--because the fabric is definitely sturdier than the patchwork knits--and for the bias binding, because stripy bias bindings are always fun.

 

I did interface all of the knit parts, although I also made that harder than necessary because I used pieces from the interfacing scrap bin, building up two layers of coverage on the back of each piece--this did make the knit pieces heftier, but, again, this is also why I decided to use a sturdier fabric for the lining.

I did look up reviews of this pattern, and I agree that there should probably be a pocket inside.

Maybe next time.

I did take some time to try to align the patchwork seams along the bottom

 

and sides

 

This side aligned considerably better than the other side.  It's fine.   And you can see how I decided to make the fabrics at the corner seams be the same.  It was the easiest option.

 

Oh, I guess this is where I mention that I did have to pick apart some of the pairs of patches I had so eagerly sewn together before laying everything out, because it turned out I needed odd numbers of patches to make up the right width, without then cutting through seams--I hadn't sewn these with tiny stitches, so the seams would have come apart.  But, since I had sewn with regular stitches, they were easy enough to pick apart.

 

And here's the back.

I did try to get some different textures involved, partly because I do want to remember to play with texture more, and partly because there were some different  textures in my fabric choices, so I leaned into that and omitted some that weren't as solidly differentiated.

Will I ever use this bag?  Unsure.  But it's now here to use!