Saturday, March 29, 2008

One Step Forward But First Eight Steps Back

I was going to save this post for Monday but it seems some of my California Contingency needs a little love today.

After the inaugural bag outing it was clear that a pocket was needed. Let me state for the record that if you think you may want to put some pockets somewhere do it before you sew the thing together, trust me you will save time and cursing.

So I pondered the afterthought pocket. For those knitters out there let me say that I was longing for the great Elizabeth Zimmerman’s afterthought pocket. Sadly sewing is not the same as knitting, at least in this respect.

I figured I could be sneaky about it and open up one lining seam and take off one set of handles (those closest to the opening). This might have even worked if I hadn’t gotten distracted on the phone and took off both sets -sigh-

I decided to make lemonade out of my lack of handles and add two pockets. And having both sets off proved to be an asset making the whole thing easier to maneuver in the sewing machine. I reinforced the back of the fabric with more fusible backing.

I am quite proud of the expandable pocket, which means I will no longer have to hunt for my cell phone in the bottom of my bag.

I also added a handy dandy metrocard pocket.

Perhaps the best part of posting on the weekend was that I had the help of my lovely assistant, that's right those fingers belong to my guy who was very helpful while I tackled the challenge of photographing the inside of the bag for you all. Proving yet again that more hands are always better.

2 comments:

Sara said...

Spectacularly nice pockets -- well done! I'd be even more impressed if I didn't have an already extremely high opinion of your general handiness.

I have always felt that a multitude of poets is better than one -- just think how jostled your metrocard could have gotten if thoughtlessly tossed into the pocket next to the impolite cell phone.

Sara said...

Er, I mean a multitude of pockets is better than one. But, I must say, a multitude of poets is also to be appreciated.