The Bag That Failure Made

You might remember this post, where I revealed a sneak peek at a gift I've been making for a friend. You might have guessed that it would require sewing. Yesterday, I was ready to give up on machine sewing for good. I was in tears, trying desperately to make one of the two sewing machines I possess work.

But then I found this delightful lady, Tanya Johnson on YouTube. She is pretty much my favorite person right now. 

Isn't she delightful? I paid more attention to her than any other sewing guide I watched. She has videos for several different types of sewing machines. You can check out her channel here. Her video was especially helpful because I don't know enough about sewing machines to know what all the parts are called, and she had a guide that was specific to my machine. I really do need a series of videos and tutorials that are idiot-proof.

After running through a few test fabrics, I got to work making my mystery gift for Caitlin, who is leaving at the end of the month for her Peace Corps journey. The fabric I chose was upholstery grade, which has the bonus of being durable with the drawback of being thick and hard to sew together. I also chose a thread that matched one of the colors in the fabric to better hide that I am shit at sewing.

I put my favorite album on the stereo and set to work.  (Fun facts: It is Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins, and I've worn out or given away at least three copies of the album in the past ten years.)

My first seam!!!

Even I know to press my seams. ;)

I was feeling really good about myself. I was nostalgic for my teen-self's musical taste and general badassery (and the fact that fourteen year old me could sew shit). Then tragedy struck:

What the fuck is this even?

 It was the same thing the machine kept doing that had me convinced it was broken anyway, despite my best efforts. But I realized that it's probably been my mistake all along. I set to it with a seam ripper and some scissors and fixed it. Then it was time to add the zipper. I'm not sure why I decided that my first time making a thing in ten years needed to include a zipper, but it did. This is probably the shittiest zipper installation known to man.

I finished making the bag (didn't you guess?!) right as the album was coming to a close. I am proud of how it looks, but I'm not sure if it's functional. Is it okay to give someone a handmade gift with instructions not to actually use it?
 

The front/back.

The back/front.