Another Weekender Bag

Well, what ‘they’ say is true…. you do forget the pain of something…. eventually! Although it took almost three years!!

I finally reached the point where I had forgotten about the pains of making my Cotton + Steel Amy Butler Weekender Bag from 2016 (to read the fun and games of that make click here and here )

So I made another one this last week…… and it wasn’t too bad! (well, except for that *&^%* lining!!)

I have had Desert Blooms by Amanda Herring Designs sitting in my stash for ages … just waiting for the right project (I had already determined who was going to get this fabric, just not what it was going to be made into!).

And then a special 40th birthday arrived and it was decided…. it was time to do another Weekender Bag!

And then family things and medical things and life in general got in the way and suddenly my birthday deadline with only 5 days away! GULP!

I just loved doing FMQ on the floral print – the Soft ‘n Stable is just perfect for the bag and showed the quilting up beautifully! The texture is gorgeous and you just want to keep running your hands over it!

I did change a few things from the original Amy Butler pattern :

1. I used Soft ‘n Stable for the main panels and pockets
2. I quilted the end pockets and side pockets with the lining on the back and then cut to size and put normal binding across the top instead of the bias piping
3. I used a double sided zip
4. Slightly longer handles
5. I inserted a zip pocket on the inside lining

Putting the lining in is… well… there is no way around it… PAINFUL! Literally and figuratively 😀 If it wasn’t going to be given to my friend the next morning, it would have been thrown in the corner with a few choice words and I would have left it alone for a couple of weeks!

Still, the joy on my friend’s face to receive her Weekender bag was worth the pricked fingers and broken threads! Many times over. 🙂

And I had a little bit of the handles left over so I made up two quick key fobs to go with it!

So glad I made another one. And in fact, I am thinking it was the sort of fun that I should share with others and I might make this into a class for later this year or next year. What do you think, would you like to come to a class to learn how to make one of these?