Weekend Sewing Weekend Away Travel Bag

My friend's birthday was the other day and she is currently spending two weeks in Greece, so I wanted to make her an early birthday present she could take with her on the trip. I settled on the Weekend Sewing zippered travel bag because it was small, cute, and useful.

I used linen for the outside but added some iron-on interfacing, too, just to give it some structure. For the inside I used some Heather Bailey Pop Garden zigzag fabric. I wanted the lining to be really fun. I think the hot pink zipper alludes to it.

I had some issues with this pattern (and, if you have this book or have been looking around online, you probably know that the patterns have lots of errata). First, I'd like to state that I love the way the zipper goes into this. It looks so clean and had me feeling like super professional crafty lady. Unfortunately, when I put all the pieces together, I ended up putting the zipper part in a little crooked on one end. That's my fault. Sewing the entire thing together was a little tricky, especially around the curves. My sewing machine was not all that pleased with me, and I had to go over some areas multiple times. The area I had the most trouble with was the lining pocket. I didn't use elastic thread, but instead stitched on a small elastic band using an elastic zigzag stitch, pulling the elastic while I stitched so it would gather the fabric. This actually worked pretty well. It wasn't until I stitched the pocket to the lining that I realized it only comes up about 1" on either side! It looks nothing like the sketch in the book. Ooops. That's not my fault--the measurements for cutting the pocket are incorrect. Guess I just need to chalk that up to a learning experience...

I've written this blog post ahead of time because I'm actually on my way to Wisconsin right now to spend a week with my parents. I'll be spending a couple of days with my grandparents, working on some quilt tops with my grandmother. I'm very much looking forward to that! I'll also be attending my ten-year high school reunion this weekend. Oh my. I have a few more pre-scheduled posts that will go up while I'm on this trip (I can't call it a "vacation"). May was an incredibly productive crafty month for me!