On Saturday I was able to take a bag class at my LQS, Quilt Emporium, in Woodland Hills, CA.  I’m so excited because it is the first in a series of bag classes offered through a program by By Annie.  I love that they start with an easy bag and work through a series of bags that get more complicated so that you learn various techniques of bag making.  I’ve been looking for something like this for a long time and in fact, mentioned it to the ladies at my LQS.  I’m sure my request wasn’t the only one because the class was pretty full.

I forgot to take pictures early in the day but after lunch remembered so here are the pictures.

By the time I remembered to take pictures I had already quilted my inside and outside fabric to the soft and stable.  I already attached the belt.

I already made the zipper/mesh pouch.

And I was making the outer part of the bag.  You can’t tell but that’s a vinyl pocket.  I have heard horror stories about sewing on vinyl which is one of the reasons why I took an actual class.  Luckily our instructor had a Bernina and let me borrow her Teflon foot specifically made for sewing on vinyl.  With her instructions and the foot, it was easy peasy and I can’t wait to purchase a foot of my own and sew more bags with vinyl.

Our instructor showed us how to connect the zippers.  These zippers were from By Annie and were 30″ long.  The zipper had 2 zips attached and an extra zip in the kit.  I would have had a hell of a time trying to figure out how to attach those zippers on my own.

Here’s the bag all trimmed and ready for binding.

Yesterday, I was able to get it together and put the binding on:

Inside

Outside

~crafty mojo is coming back…

~happy crafting

~Melanie