Amy Butler Weekender: Piping, Seam Ripping, and Re-sewing...oh my!

For those who are following the step by step commentary on the making of my 2nd Amy Butler Weekender, I'm sorry for my long absence. I'm happy to announce that I finished the bag last night and have gifted it to the intended recipient...Grace, my awesome knitter friend.

Now that I'm done, I can say that this bag was more difficult to make than the first one because of the following reasons:
1) getting used to a new sewing machine
2) Amy Butler's Nigella fabric line frayed more than her August Fields line
3) not having a proper sewing space at my Denver apt
4) had to line up the fabric pattern on all pieces because the design is so large and distinct
5) busy work schedule in Denver

But before I post about the final product, I want to finish what I set out to do...which was to share my tips and comments about the process of making the bag. On my last post, I shared about how handy Steam-a-seam is when covering the piping. The heavyweight linen that I used for the piping was definitely a hard material to work with...it was stiff, yet weird and stretchy so it was hard to cut consistent strips.

After making the piping, you've finished you "prep"work and are ready to start on the bag. You first make the pockets for the outer side panels. I followed these steps according to the instructions. Then you make the handles and attach them to the side panels. I wanted to use the exterior fabric for one side of the handles, and the interior fabric for the other side (instead of using the interior fabric for both sides) so I cut 1 strip of each fabric at 2" and sewed them together with a .5" seam allowance giving you the 3" wide strip that the original instructions called for. For extra reinforcement, I sewed an X when attaching the handles (the original instructions just have you sew 1 horizontal line across).

Then you attach the pockets to the side panels. Again, I followed the instructions. Then you attach the piping to the outer edge of the side panels. This is probably the first place where it starts getting difficult. Some reviews I read said it was good idea to hand baste the piping onto the panels first. I did that on my first bag, but was too lazy to do that on this bag so I just used binder clips. I made the mistake of crowding my piping and not making my piping strips wide enough...so that made the rest of the bag construction kind of painful.

craftybakeshoppe.com

a few weeks ago, my hubby bought me my own domain name...craftybakeshoppe.com! don't go there yet, because i haven't created the website yet. but at least i have the domain name and no one else can steal it! thanks hubby, for helping me get one step closer to realizing my dream!

M.I.A.

hey faithful readers, sorry that i've been missing in action lately. my project team has been wrapping up the design phase of our project so it's been a pretty stressful past few weeks. plus, i caught the seasonal flu and was out of commission for a week. but, i'm all better now and looking forward to the holidays!

i was reminded today about this blog...about how it's not just a sewing blog and about how i haven't posted in a LONG time. so i wanted to take the chance to post about some cookies i baked and decorated for my co-workers here in denver.

i baked the cookies in houston over the weekend, but didn't have time to decorate them. so i made the icing and stored them in small pyrex containers the night before i had to fly back to denver. the total volume of liquid was too much to fit in a 1-quart plastic bag so i had to check in my luggage...all because of the icing! i carried on the cookies because i didn't want to risk breaking them. i then decorated the cookies last night here in denver and below is the end product. i had to make do with less decorating tools/supplies than i normally have...hence, some of the sloppy work. but overall, i'm still happy with the end result!

if you want to make the perfect sugar cookie that is soft, moist, and tasty...paired with a tasty icing that dries hard and shiny, let me know and i'll email you my personal instructions and recipe for making yummy sugar cookies!