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Wednesday, June 2, 2010
FO Feature: Retro-Style Bag
was looking around at the store for a new purse recently. I’ve been using the same purses for quite a while now, and they’re both looking pretty tired. Once I realized that I didn’t like any of my options in the store (people want to carry those? really?), I decided that maybe knitting one would be my best option. I’d had this bag in my favorites for quite a while, and I definitely wanted to make one. Well, what a perfect excuse!
The bag is made up of DK weight yarn – I used CotLin from Knit Picks in pomegranate (I have a thing for red, I’ve learned). The CotLin is sturdy and I love the texture of it. It’s sturdy, but soft enough to be nice to touch. The bag itself was pretty easy to make, but I had to kind of make things up here and there, because the instructions were vague at best in spots. The instructions on how to sew the liner were especially vague, and since I definitely don’t know how to sew, I had to enlist Johnathan’s help in doing so.
We bought the fabric just after the yarn came in, so it was all ready to go when I finished the bag. We set about measuring things and cutting out bits of fabric. All-told, we had six pieces: four sides, one bottom and one piece for the pockets. It took about two hours, and there was some frustration involved as we got everything sewn in. We ended up using black thread to sew the liner to the bag which looks okay, even the spot where the sewing machine jammed a little bit toward the end. There’s only one spot that got caught and sewed in funny, and it was on the side, which was going to get sewn down anyway.
I was okay with how it turned out, but Johnathan felt like he could do better. So, on May 28th, we ripped everything out and started over. The second time around, we got actual maroon thread, so it was less obvious, and he sewed it in a bit differently. Instead of going all the way around, he did the two long sides individually, then we fixed up the short sides. This time, everything went much smoother! I sewed on the handles in the car on our way down to Columbus, and the bag was finished! It is wonderful! It held my scarf-in-progress (feature post coming soon), wallet, sunscreen, sunglasses, nook e-reader, and the purchases that we maid through the day. Plus, it just looks awesome.
While we were out and about this weekend, however, my wonderful new bag met with slight catastrophe. Johnathan kept a chapstick in the car, and not thinking about hot it had been in the car, I decided I needed some. So I opened it. It was liquified. And it got all over my bag. Thankfully, a quick search on the internet showed me that this isn’t ruination, but it sure doesn’t look awesome. The chapstick can come out, if we can ever find somewhere with dry cleaning fluid. Thank good ness I made this bag out of a cotton and linen blend and not out of wool, or things would be a lot more difficult!
No matter, though – I’m very happy with this bag and can’t wait to carry it to work this week.
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