It’s in the Bag blog hop and Put your foot down
It’s in the bag…
blog hop with Island Batik is in its 3rd week. Welcome to my stop in another fun hop featuring patterns from ByAnnie. ByAnnie has been an industry partner for 3 years and are so generous to the IB Ambassadors. Each year we are allowed to choose a bag pattern and ByAnnie sends everything we need to complete the challenge. The pattern I chose this year is Room With A View. Previously, it was a struggle choosing the pattern because they are all awesome.
This year I knew exactly what I wanted to make as soon as I learned I’d been accepted for another year as an Island Batik Ambassador.
Some of the products featured on this site were provided to me free of charge by Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil , AccuQuilt, Deb Tucker Studio 180 Designs and Schmetz Needles.
Room with a view has a zippered lid, a zip pocket on the inside lid and a clear vinyl window on the front. I had wondered if this nifty bag would fit my Ikea Cubes to put scraps of fabric and add a splash of color in my otherwise dull sewing room. In the sewing room they will be great for organizing loose scraps or scraps you have cut in your favorite shapes. They could be used for project boxes, quilt kits…
Use them in the car to hold kids toys, carry buns or dishes to family gatherings, makeup bags, or de-clutter bags. They would also make a great gift, store diapers and wipes, or to organize kids cloths if you purchase larger sizes on clearance for your grandchild.
It’s in the bag fabric
Vintage Charm designed by Kathy Engle for Island Batik is such a fresh pretty collection. As with all their collections, Vintage Charm includes light, medium and dark fabrics to balance out any project. The two fabrics I chose for my bag…
You can view individual swatches of Vintage Charm on the Island Batik website here.
A few shops where you may find Vintage Charm
| Blue Bar Quilts | Middleton |
| Carpenter Quilts-ME | Damariscotta |
| Creekside Quilts-OR | Gales Creek |
| Hancocks of Paducah | Paducah |
Cutting and organizing
ByAnnie patterns include a sheet/s of labels to make organizing the many pieces that go into each bag a breeze.
Quilting and sewing
Room with a view includes cutting directions for 3 sizes, I chose to make the large bag which finishes at 12.5″. Best thing about this size, it fits perfectly inside one of the cubes. Yay!
Soft and Stable replaces batting in the bags and it not only adds stability, but a nice quilted finished. For the quilting and joining the many pieces of my bag I used Aurifil 50wt Ecru.
The directions are broken down for each step and includes a box for checking off the steps as you go. I really recommend using these boxes because it is easy to get lost. Some of the patterns include an Add-On Video which are very helpful, more so on Room with a view. There are seams that need to be hidden and the video shows a clever way of stitching and flipping the fabric to hide them. Yes, there are add on videos for many of the ByAnnie bag patterns.
Finished
Joining all of the parts and adding binding was a huge concern for me since destroying my Juki TL2010Q. I cried and spent many sleepless nights over losing the machine. My new Elna EF1 straight stitch machine, I wondered if it would stitch through these heavy seams like butter, as the Juki did? Let me say, it is outstanding and impressed even the skeptical me and, I can use the Juki feet on the Elna so a part of it lives on.
The fabric, the pattern, all accessories and my sewing machine played a huge part in making the bag. Let’s not forget the needle. I’m not a needle diva who changes her needle size and type like they were handbags. Mostly I use the Schmetz Microtex Chrome Needles for all my sewing. Except when I am paper piecing or using a fusible, then I use their non stick needles.
First photo (above) immediately after completion. This poor bag had been rolled, scrunched, turned inside out, folded and turned every which way. lol. The Soft and Stable handled all of that well.
Did you wonder what was in that surprise package I shared in July? Vintage Charm of course!
Isn’t it pretty? Vintage Charm 1/2 yard bundle in the window, the Flower Field Teal Sea shell of my bag is absolutely beautiful!
Under the lid you will find the zippered mesh pocket. I admit, I did use my seam reaper on the mesh and zipper but it was totally user error. This bag holds a lot of fabric and has room for a little bulge!
Previous ByAnnie challenges
Thank you Island Batik and all industry partners for another month of great products.
Your chance to win a bundle of fabric from Island Batik
a Rafflecopter giveawayAmbassadors and schedule
You can view the entire hop schedule on the Island Batik Blog here. For a list of IB Ambassadors, click below.
Fabulous bags!!
Thank you so much
Hello Denise. I love the way your bag came out. The fabrics you chose are so pretty. I also love how you displayed the collection inside the bag! Clever. I think I need to add this pattern to my byannie bucket list. Have a fabulous day!
If you have cubes for storage in your sewing room these are perfect. I’ll be making more as soon as I have everything out of storage and know what I need. Thank you Jennifer.
Love that main bag fabric! What a cool and useful container. You’ll have to make more 🙂
Me too, the shell fabric is one of my favorites. There are more in my future.
Great project!
Love these!
Great job on making a beautiful bag.. The bag looks big enough to use for lots of things. And I really love these fabrics. I think they are my favorite so far.
Mine too, they are so fresh and clean. They would make a beautiful baby quilt. The bag is very roomy, I think I had a couple packs of 10″ squares, yardage, a strip set, a fat quarter bundle. Let’s just say there was 2 armful loads in there.
Nice job! I liked seeing the reminders of your past projects too. I remembered the one with the pup. 🙂
Loki was less than a year old and so tiny in that photo. He would likely still fit in the bag being only 5 lbs.
You have created another cute and very useful By Annie project! I love the photo with your little dog in the basket:)
Thank you Vicki. These totes/bags would be great for you when traveling.
Pretty bag that holds a lot.
It really does, I pulled some out for the photos.
These bags are great. The size is so generous I can imagine all they can hold.
If you don’t mind the bulge, they hold a lot. Thank you for stopping by.