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Wednesday 28 April 2021

Mary's Bag

After taking forever to complete, I mailed Mary's bag last Friday and it arrived Monday, much quicker than I'd expected. I'd hoped to post about it this Friday but since she's already received it, I can post today. 






The pattern is Burda 7119. I chose it because I wanted to make a large project bag however, in reality, this is luggage. The finished size is huge but perfect for travelling with all the possible project supplies you might need.  





Mary loves all kinds of colours and textures mixed up together which is how this combination came to be. The sides and the background of the flap are made from denim scraps from my bits & pieces of potential box. 






The floral was chosen not only to co-ordinate with the other prints but so I could cut out the individual flowers and applique them to the background of the flap. I used a zigzag stitch around the edges and free motion with a variegated thread for the petal shapes inside the flowers and with a matching thread for the background. 





The inside is a combination of a tone-on-tone turquoise with remnants from the strip quilting on the front. The bottom and the zipper pocket use the floral and the slip pocket uses a lighter turquoise with a small floral motif and polka-dot binding. I finished the exterior first and every other decision was based on the fabrics I had left. 





My original plan was to use purchased handles only I didn't have any long enough. Plan B was to sew the handles from the same dark blue print used on the underside of the flap utilizing following the pattern only that was a lesson in excessive frustration... using cotton... not the leather called for. In the end, I opted to use strapping with a patch of leather at each end and a turquoise button stitched in place with yellow pearl cotton. For the purse feet, I used large buttons. 





The scariest part was the snaps. Mary's birthday was in December. Moving and renovations had already made it next to impossible to get the bag sewn and there on time but not being able to use my Bernina because the new control foot was on indefinite backorder kept delaying things. MONTHS later, the last thing I wanted was to insert the snaps incorrectly and mess everything up. I practiced. A lot. On scraps. And then I used my new hand press to securely install them. YES YES! It went so well that I'm dreaming of a coat with snaps now - LOL. 

The bag arrived with a copy of the pattern tucked inside. At one point, I couldn't find mine, bought a replacement, and immediately found mine. It also arrived with another pieced panel that - ideally - would have been made into a zip pouch to hold small tools. This is not an ideal world. It didn't happen. I couldn't wait any longer so... she has the parts if she wants to make the pouch and if not, she can make it go away. 

I've known Mary for eight years. I met her when my oldest grandson was born and I went to Calgary to help my daughter and son-in-law. I posted on my blog at the time that I'd be there and could meet up for coffee with anyone who was interested. Several people took me up on my offer which was really fun although Mary is the only one I've stayed in contact with. We got along right away and have been visiting back and forth ever since. She's an amazing, wonderful, caring, supportive, encouraging, creative, giving, sharing, and so much more, woman and I am very blessed to have her as a friend. Belated happy special birthday Mary. 

Do you enjoy the challenge of making a gift for a friend?

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - friendship

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