Recently I’ve tried my hand at some rudimentary bags. I showed them to you in a previous post here and here. Then I saw this great pattern on the Sew Serendipity website. I bought the pattern and thought about it for a while. Then I was sidelined from hand quilting because I hurt my hands/wrists so I decided this was the perfect time to try to make the bag using my machine.

There are learning curves and then there are LEARNING CURVES! This one was an Everest for me. To begin with all went smoothly but then as I started sewing through 10 thicknesses of fabric, 9 thicknesses of interfacing plus one thickness of Peltex, I realised two things – 1. Manhandling all that fabric and a sewing machine is not good for sore hands and 2. I need an industrial strength sewing machine just to get that much fabric under the presser foot!

I persevered and finished the bag. Some bits I had to do by hand because they physically would not go under the presser foot of my machine. Other bits I did but not to my satisfaction as it was too difficult to manhandle a whole, stiff, inside out bag and sew several very thick pieces at the same time.

I’m happy with the end result but IF I ever made another I wouldn’t make it so stiff. It’s just too hard with an ordinary domestic sewing machine. Anyway here it is. What do you think?