The Hudson Bag - Part 3 (top and a finish)

This project certainly stretched my sewing skills and also the use of my seam ripper. I was concerned that if I had to seam rip the laminated cotton the holes would show through from the prior seam. I should not have worried. Maybe it is the pattern I selected but I really cannot see where I had to seam rip numerous seams (sometimes the same spot more than once).

The top itself was quite an easy portion. The only difficulty was attaching the zipper pull.

I have never used zippers by the foot before- the hardest part of these is the pull. It took quite a few tries and a couple of youtube videos. I am sure that if I did this more often it would be faster and easier.

Now if I struggled with attaching one zipper pull imagine putting on two. The first time I managed to get them both on the zipper I realized at least one of them needed to be facing a different direction. Otherwise the zippers never truly meet in the middle. When you zip there would always be a section that was open. After some time and effort I finally got them installed the correct way so the zippers meet.

If I thought I had struggled before there was much more struggle bus time ahead! Attaching the lining to the top just completely stumped me. I read and reread the directions, looked at the pictures and watched the video sew along numerous times. Despite all of that I sewed this portion together wrong 4 times! When I would sew the two parts together and turn everything right side my zipper just disappeared. I tried attaching the lining every which way to the other side of the zipper tape, but I just could not picture how it was supposed to be attached. I was about ready to simply fold in a small hem on all sides of the lining and sew it in that way just to get past this step, but decided to try Facebook. Sallie Tomato, of course has a Facebook group. I posted my dilemma and question. It turns out that not many people have actually posted about this project in the Facebook group. Luckily, I found another sewist who had actually posted about the exact issue I was having. Bless her because she actually posted a picture of how she solved the issue. I sent off a Facebook messenger note to her for clarification. She responded right away and I was finally able to get the top completed. Now the sewing on the inside is not picture pretty but the darn thing is attached and I can actually open the bag. I call that a win.

The next step was to insert the lining. It does seem very bright in this picture. I don't think it is as in your face in person. Once the lining was installed the top stitching was all that was left.

Here is the finished project. This is a very large bag but should hold all the ice blocks and food I need (probably for an entire week of work, but whatever).