Sewing Failure
I have downloaded a few free patterns from the website sewcanshe that seem like they are well written and easy to produce items. I am now completely done with these patterns. The last few I have tried have been some of the hardest patterns to follow and some of the frankly worst items I have ever sewn. I am not a greatest seamstress by any stretch of the imagination but usually my items turn out usable. If you remember I made a purse from the same website that did eventually turn out fine, but was very frustrating to complete. I use that " purse" as a project bag for my knitting.
I thought well let me try one more of her patterns to see if it was just a one off on not being able to follow the directions. I really do not understand why the directions are so difficult to follow. They are written in steps but I still seem to get very confused by the directions. The patterns do include pictures but I find them to be some of the most unhelpful sewing pictures I have ever used. I guess patterns by Love Notions and Ellie & Mac have ruined me for other companies. Each of the projects involve a tremendous amount of seam unpicking. Now I have had to unpick a seam of two in my sewing days but usually not 4-5 times on the same project.
The biggest reason I think I find this frustrating is I do not have unlimited time to sew. I don't mind if I try a new pattern and it doesn't work, but I learned a new skill or technique. I realize that not every sewing project will be a "homerun" as far as if I like it in the end. This project simply frustrated me and I ended up throwing the finished item away. I did not learn any new sewing methods so I really feel like I wasted a couple of hours.
I know from using her projects before that I need to label all the pieces I cut out. Otherwise I am constantly remeasuring all the cut pieces. This project alone had 8 cut pieces of lining and outer fabric and batting pieces in between.
I did the zipper pieces as directed. Those went pretty well. I can insert zippers and I did think the fabric pieces on each side are a nice touch in the finished project.
After the zipper and end pieces were attached it went downhill pretty rapidly. I was very careful with my cutting. I used a mat and my rotary cutter so I cut all pieces according to the measurements. Trying to attach the front and back pieces to the zipper sides was pretty difficult. I had to unpick one whole very long seam. I ended up not sewing the pieces as directed with the end pieces folded back onto the handles to cover them. My machine handles almost all my sewing projects very well. Folding fabric and then sewing 4 thick layers together was not making my machine happy. I unpicked and straightened out the seams. After they were attached in the manner I liked I serged the seams because I was worried about all the stress on the seams.
It seemed like we were back in business - nope. I then had to attach the bottom to the cube I now had. The issue was that the bottom piece was no where near the measurement needed to fit into the sides of the bag- it was shockingly small. The bottom piece did not even match on the front and back sides. There was at least an excess inch on each side once attached. The side attachments were even worse. There was at least 2 inches extra on each end of the edges. The directions claimed everything would fit perfectly. I did not have this experience.
By this time I was pretty much done with this disaster. I tried a few ways to try to get the pieces to fit. It was just not happening. I finally did get it all sewn together but it looked like trash. I just threw it away after taking a picture. Even serging the edges together was not going to help.
Luckily I have more of the outer fabric left. I just used scraps from other projects so no investment of sewing fabric treasures was involved. Another personal change i would make it to make the handles much longer. They were way too short for me. I like a longer handle on my lunchbag so it can be put over my shoulder.
Luckily I just bought a new release pattern for a backpack that comes in 3 different sizes. I am sure after I sew a practice piece I can use that pattern to make myself a new lunch box for work.