On the very first day of the year I had my first finish! I am excited to do more sewing this year, and the Sew Together bag has been on my list since it came out (about a hundred million years ago). It is the absolute perfect English Paper Piecing bag and since I’ve been hauling that project to work it’s exciting to have a better solution than my old ziplock bag + little wallet pouch.
It is a DREAM to sew a popular project many years after its release because there are a ton of ideas and tips online.
I used the Quilt Barn sew along for this project and it was enormously helpful. I will say that it’s hard to judge how involved a step will be by how things are broken up, so don’t feel like each day will involve the same amount of work. Day 1 is a breeze. Day 2 is very involved (zipper day), Day 3 and 4 are relatively quick, and then Day 5 is a long slog to the end (especially if you hand sew the binding or are piecing the exterior section that day).
My instagram buddies saved me a lot of frustration by telling me to just commit to hand sewing the binding on the bag. This makes a huge difference I think!
I added a couple of details that I saw online. I switched the middle zipper to a different orientation which I thought was cute, but I feel like it’s a little impractical and I wouldn’t do it again. I LOVE the elastic strip I added and wish I had done another one. Or maybe three–one in each open pocket. I included a needle landing felt pad but skipped the pin cushion.
I lost a TON of time being indecisive with fabric. There are soooo many options for placement and you can get REALLY scrappy with this one, and it being my first big project in a while I went back and forth on a lot of things, even cutting out sections, deciding against it, and then recutting. (The side zipper tabs were first green, then navy blue, then back to green for example.) I am already thinking about my next one and trying to make good fabric choices BEFORE I cut!
Details: Pattern is Sew Together Bag. Lining fabrics are Cotton and Steel basics. Exterior fabric and binding is from the Cotton and Steel Paper Cuts line.
