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.