Another Project Bag

Yesterday I made two project bags. I like to quarter 5" charm squares and lay them out checkerboard-style on fusible interfacing, pressing them in place before stitching the columns and rows.

This technique allows for practically perfect 2" squares. This charm pack was one I purchased at Country Clothesline in East York. 

With project bags in mind, I had also purchased 0.5 metre of a companion fabric which I used for lining, trim, and binding.

Normally, I like to use a patterned fabric for the back, extending each side by 1" which then is folded twice to the front, creating a binding, and stitched in place, like this:

The quilted checkerboards were created a while ago. Since then, I have found fusible interfacing with 2 1/2" grids which makes the checkerboard process even easier. However I did find the squares had to be trimmed a wee bit so there wouldn't be any overlap when laying them out.

For this Tilda bag,  I wanted the quilted fabric to be on the back and the companion fabric the interior/lining, I cut 2.5" strips for the binding. 

One tip I picked up from some YouTube video is to zigzag stitch around the bag to join all the pieces at the edges before attaching the binding. Top and bottom first, then the sides afterwards. Stitching over vinyl can be tricky. The presser foot wants to stick to it. The issue is resolved by lining up tissue paper with the edge and zigzagging over it and the edges. It also helps to use a walking foot for the many layers and avoid 'bullnosing'. The paper tears away easily.

After sewing the binding to the right side, it was folded over to the back and hand-stitched in place. I used the technique in this video to join the two ends of the binding. Leave lots of the ends unstitched and take your time.

So for this bag, there is a plain interior and a quilted, checkerboard back.

On a (yet to be revealed 'stealth') bag, I created checkerboards for both the interior and exterior. I did use a companion fabric for the zipper trim and binding. On that bag, that pesky binding didn't go so well. I thought I'd try sewing a double-fold binding around the edge hoping to avoid hand-stitching. The result did not look good so it was removed. The needle holes through the vinyl were very visible so couldn't be reused. The strip was detached from the zipper and vinyl. A new piece of vinyl was cut and attached to the strip and zipper, then cut to match the edges of the bag.

I added an extra piece to the previously-used binding strip and folded it in half lengthwise - wrong sides together. 

The binding was attached on the front and again, folded over to the back and hand-stitched into place. The result looks so much better. This method is much more labour-intensive but makes use of checkerboards inside AND on the back of the bag. 

All will be revealed at a later date.