Sneak Peak - Ella Handbag

Ella is super cute and perfect if you want to carry your IPad
in your purse with all your other stuff.

Wow, did I make a ton of mistakes today. I guess my mind wasn't on my sewing, I spent over an hour taking out seams! I really had problems getting this purse together, but it's finally starting to shape up.

Let me introduce Ella. She is a satchel style bag made with a wonky weave to show her fun side. An IPad or tablet will easily fit inside but she's really more than an IPad sleeve. So cute!

The handles were SUPPOSED to be sewn into the seam
between the main panel and the top panel. Notice, I forgot
to add them.

You would think when making a pattern, if you first make it in muslin you would find all your problems...not the case with this cutie. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, I'm not sure, but the first thing I did wrong was to leave off the pockets on the sides. Come to find out, after ripping it apart and sewing in a pocket on one side, it just didn't look good. Low and behold by the time I figured that out, I realized I had sewn in the top panel and left out the handles! Now I HAD to rip out the top panel and that was a good opportunity for me to remove the side pocket.

While ripping out the seams that went around three sides of the purse, I noticed that the weave fabric I had created was starting to pull apart in more than one place. I couldn't believe it, was this pattern doomed or what?

I decided that while I had it apart I would resew the area that was fraying. It made the piece imperfect but it's not really noticeable. I doubt I would sell this piece because of the corrections I needed to make but it was a great failure and it taught me to (1) widen the stitch, (2) note this in the instructions as a possibility if the seam is not centered properly on the stitching, the seamstress needs to be sure to stay centered, and lastly, (3) if it needs to be corrected, it doesn't look bad and is hardly noticeable.

To correct, all I did was start on the stitching a little ways up from where it was fraying, centering on the existing stitching. Then as I got close to the fraying, I veered toward the fray so the stitching caught it. Continuing to sew past the frayed part as I headed back toward the original stitching until I was centered on it again. Then I stopped at an intersection where the original stitching crossed.

Double click on the picture for close-up of the correction.

An alternative to the method just described would be to double stitch all the lines again catching the frayed edges. But I don't really think that's necessary, as you can see in the photo below, it looks just fine.

In the photo at the top of this post, only the outside shell is finished. I still need to make and insert the lining. After writing this post, I think I will see about adding an optional divider for an IPod or tablet to help keep it from getting scratched.

I'm going to have to make this pattern one more time so I can get the instructions clear in my head before I start the write-up.

Do you have any suggestions while I'm still in the development phase? What colors would you like me to use on the next one I sew? Leave me a comment, I love hearing from you.

Until later ~

Reba