The Bag That Pride Re-Created

Do you remember The Bag That Failure Made? Let me refresh your memory.

Fail Bag is quite photogenic.

It was this bag, and although you can't see from the picture, it was poorly constructed. If I opened it, it lost its shape and was difficult to close. The ends of the zippers poked out if they weren't tucked in just right. My friend Caitlin is leaving for the Peace Corps soon, and I just couldn't give her the Fail Bag. But I wasn't sure what else to do. I put it away, and I chatted with some friends about it, all of whom assured me she's would appreciate the bag anyway.

I love my friends, but they were missing the point where I wasn't proud of the bag and felt ashamed to give it to someone as a gift. After one of these conversations, I went to bed but couldn't sleep. Then it hit me. The zipper was the part that gave me the most trouble because it was the last thing I put on the bag. What if I put the zipper on first, before there was a bag?

This was only a shocking revelation because I didn't look up any tutorials for bag making. I had figured it wouldn't be that hard to make a zippered pouch. I probably did it completely backwards and wrong. I started trying to take Fail Bag apart so I could remake it using the same materials, but as poorly constructed as it was, it seemed perfectly content on remaining a bag.

So new plan. Make a completely different bag, starting with the zipper and working my way from there. The fabric I used was really thick, which was part of the problem with Fail Bag. Hemming the fabric make it thick and bulgy in places. I decided to use a different attack mode for this fabric. I lucked out and bought a square of fabric that had overlocked edges, so I used those edges for the zipper part. That meant they would be exposed, but I think they look better than a shitty hem would.

Pinned and ready!

Here it us, under the needle!

I stitched the sides of the bag to the zipper, and then I stitched the bottom of the bag. I used a simple straight stitch, and then I put a zigzag stitch over the first seam. I did the same for the other two sides.

Everything was going well until this happened.

Thankfully, it was not due to a problem with my machine. As I was guiding the fabric through, the machine collided with my hand, causing the needle to become loose and pop off. I stopped, put the needle back on, and re-did the stitching. I thought my luck had turned sour when I pulled the bag out from the machine, cut the thread, and then realized there wasn't a seam like there should have been. It turned out that my bobbin had run empty. However, I did finish the project. :-)
 

Fail Bag is on the left, and the new bag is on the right.