It’s In the Bag – an Island Batik Challenge

Here we are already in Week 3 of the It’s In The Bag Blog Hop!

Hopefully you’ve had a chance to check out the first two weeks of beautiful projects. If you need a recap, check out the Island Batik blog here. 

I was sent this beautiful group of fabrics from the new Summer 2023 collection, Morris Titles, that should be hitting your LQS this month.

Tasked with choosing one pattern from industry partner, by Annie, was quite difficult. There are so many beautiful projects! You can see them here. As I will be traveling next  month, I finally chose to make the Pack It In 2.0 pattern.

I decided to use the same fabric for the exteriors and different fabrics in the interiors. Note to self: this made the process more complicated than necessary. Not the only decision like this that I made on this project. 🤪 Island Batik had graciously supplied all of the fabric for the bags, in addition to a half yard bundle of the complete collection. This was quite helpful as I changed my mind from what I wanted for one of the interior fabrics. I pulled out my selection of heavy-duty Schmetz needles and Aurifil threads and got to work. 

I was a bit daunted by the page & a half of little tags to label all of the pieces. Another note to self: read full instructions while at home, not just before beginning project, as you are instructed to make a copy of the double sided tags pages so you can cut them apart. Luckily I live only about 20 mins from the retreat site. I had forgotten a couple of other items so I drove home, made copies, and retrieved my forgotten items. Back at the retreat, I took my time to cut everything and systematically label as I went. I missed getting the picture of these as I was too busy trying to stay focused as other retreat goers passed my table and commented on how organised everything was with the cute little labels. 

I had gotten all of the necessary pieces layered and quilted on my DSM and I started to assemble the smallest of the 3 bags. I was hoping to get at least ONE of them done by the end of the first retreat weekend. That one was cut a bit short because we were driving to pick up my new longarm so maybe I was a bit more distracted than usual. Can you spot the mistake?

Everything looked fine but as another Ambassador pointed out, I’m used to assembling this type of bag in such a way that you have to turn it inside out at the end. This method of joining the seams and binding removes that tedious task but one must take care not to ASSEMBLE the bag inside out. Yes, that’s the binding on the INSIDE of the bag. Not where it was supposed to be. I was in tears so I had to put it away for a day or two. 

After two days of driving to and from to pickup my longarm, I repacked my car for the next retreat weekend. Not as much to do since it was mostly together from the first time around. At the retreat, I quickly finished my date with Jack and the unpicking. Taking better care this time, I got the bag assembled correctly.

These bags hold their shape very nicely with the Soft and Stable foam stabilizer that is sewn in between the layers. This is a by Annie product and is easy to use. It does help to have heavy-duty Schmetz needles to get through all of the layers. I sewed the binding at first by machine. As my binding by machine on a flat surface is mediocre and I’d already fought with this process before, I decided to hand-sew the edge down. Took a bit longer but I’m pleased with the results. The mesh window (also a by Annie product) is great to see what items have been packed inside.

Now I could have stopped at the small size, which is ample enough to pack a few pairs of socks and a swimsuit. But as I wanted to try out all of the sizes (AKA, Overacheiver), I made all three of them.

They nest inside of each other when not in use and can hold a lot of clothing. I like to separate my things in this way when packing so it was a real help. They are soft enough to lay flat if needed and sturdy enough to hold their shape even without anything inside.

As always, a big thank you goes to Island Batik for providing all of these gorgeous fabrics, along with their industry partners, by Annie for the pattern, video-add on, strap webbing, mesh, and zippers, Aurifil, and Schmetz for providing great tools to work with.

 

And there’s a Giveaway for this week as well!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to check out all of the other Ambassadors who will have some amazing projects this month.

Happy Quilting!