Amy Butler Cosmo Bag

Moving on to bag making.
I got Amy Butler's Style Stitches Book.
I like the Cosmo Bag, the first project on the book.
I need a new diaper bag, and this seems like a perfect bag.
....except it's a little too big, so I scanned the pattern and reduced it to ~90%.
After cutting the fabric, I think I got a good size.

I'm using Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Optic Blossom Linen for the lining, and grey solid cotton for the exterior, which I got from www.fabric.com about a week ago, and it should be on the way...
For recommended interfacing, I got Pellon SF-101 on ebay.
I got 10yd bolt for $29.99 (free shiping).
Considering it's about $5/yd at walmart, and I know I'll probably use 10yd for something, I thought it's a better deal.

Bags... it sounds simpler than garment making, but it really is not.
There're many pieces involved, and it takes time to fuse all the interfacing pieces.
Last night, I got to cut all the lining fabrics and got to fuse 1 piece of interfacing. Then at 10pm, both my kids woke up, and I had to put then back to sleep.
Aww, life of a mother.

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Mmmmm, I'm a little disappointed.
I just got my fabrics from www.fabric.com.
I ordered grey kona cotton, called "snow".
...I thought it was grey when I saw it online. It actually came out to be grey-ish white!!
I don't mind using white for a bag, it'll probably look nice.
...It'll just get dirty fast!! I guess I can wash it...

On the same topic, they sent me a wrong fabric.
I got this paisley cotton to make another bag, and they sent me this bright yellow, kids monster print fabric. Hmm... totally different...

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8/26/2011
After comtemplating, I decided to use the print for exterior, and whits kona cotton for the handles.
I just couldn't do all-white bag, especially as a diaper bag.
This thing will be taken to the beach, park, etc, and it'll soon be grey bag.
(Hey, isn't that what I wanted? Ok, not this way)
I'm glad I had enough Amy Butler fabric.
I wanted to make a dress for my daughter with it, but oh well....

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It's 2am and I'm up.
Why? Because I passed out when I put the kids to sleep at 7:30pm, and woke up at 12:30am. That's already 5hrs of sleep. I couldn't go back to sleep right away, so I decided to sew.

PHEW!!
I finally fused all the interfacings, and am ready to sew!!!
Then I realized... Wow, the first sewing job on this project is a curve!!
Hmm, I haven't done curves in awhile...
It turned out ok though.



BUT. In the middle of top stitching, my needle broke. :(
Actually, it was bent.
It kept pulling up extra thread, and about 20min of "why!?!?!?" and trying to figure it out, I realized that the needle is bent.
I thought, "oh, ok, at least I bought some today at Walmart."
...wait. I remember putting them into the cart.
But I don't remember paying for it... or taking it out of the bag...
I checked the receipt, and I guessed right, I didn't buy them. :(
I must've left them in the cart. :(
So I had to stop sewing... oh well, I was getting sleepy anyways.

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8/28/2011
Almost done with my Cosmo Bag.
It was fairly easy project. I think the worst part was cutting all the pieces and fusing the interfacing.
Once I started sewing, it only took 2-3hrs.

I made a small mistake...
Without paying attention to the directions, I just assumed that exterior bag and lining bag are identical.
So I made 4 front band pieces.
Once I got to the lining, I tried to attach the band, and realized it was too long.
??? Did I miss anything?
I figured I'll just cut and adjust, so I sewed it on, and clipped the v on the curve.
It still felt weird, so I looked at the pictures closely, and realized that the lining doesn't have the front band!!
It only has the handle pieces.
Luckily it didn't cause any damage.

I think the hardest part about this bag is to attach the exterior and lining together.
I've made bags before, so I knew what the instruction was talking about, but if this was to be your first bag project, it might be hard to understand.
So I took a picture of what happens when you "pull the lining through the hole".



After this, you put the lining into the exterior bag.
I'm not sure yet how to sew the bags together.
Am I supposed to press the edges in, and stitch them?

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8/29/2011
ALL DONE!



I had the hardest time finishing it up, because my bobbin thread kept getting tangled. After few fights, it ran out of the bobbin thread, and once I changed it, it was fine.

REVIEW of this pattern...

Amy Butler Cosmo Bag from her book Style Stitches.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Somewhat. I've made bags in the past, but I had to read each steps few times mostly because of many pattern pieces. I have to make sure that which one is "exterior", "lining", "lining pocket", etc.
On some occasions I wished there were more pictures.
Especially the end, where you attach the exterior and lining together. It's just a simple paragraph without any pictures. It might be hard to figure out if you've never made bags before.
I've taken a picture of this step on my blog, hopefully it might help some people who's attempting to make this...

The worst part about this bag was cutting the fabric & fusing the interfacing. It seemed to taken me forever - but once I started sewing, it probably only took 3-4hrs from there.


What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I like the size of it, even though I reduced the pattern to around 80%. I also like the covered button on front. I think it makes a big difference on appearence

Fabric Used:Amy Buttler Optic Blossom Linen on exterior/lining, Snow Kona Cotton on handles

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: This bag is huge!!! I scanned and reduced the pattern to about 80%. It's still quite big, and it's probably the right size for me, but I could've left it alone if I wanted a diaper bag.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I would like to sew this again over and over... the only thing is, it's not very cheap to make it, depending on what kind of fabric you use. Plus it uses so much interfacing!! It says over 6yd in the instruction. I got a 10yd bolt for $29.99, but if you were to buy it at Walmart for $5-6/yd, that's over $30 just on interfacing alone!

Conclusion: Overall I really like this bag. I like the style so much, I would like to make more - I also want to make some for x'mas gifts. But because of the cost of material, I probably won't make it as much. :(