Crossing things off my list

I made a list of things I think I should accomplish this year.. Sort of a "stuff to make and do" list, rather than resolutions. And it's not all ART ART ART stuff, there are some simpler things that, while the projects themselves aren't ART ART ART, they will just be more experience/skillbuilding that could help in the future.

One of those things was to make a new purse. I've been using this mustard yellow fake leather thing from H&M for a while now - two years maybe? - and it is starting to come apart, as $16 sweatshop-constructed accessories are wont to do. I have neither found a bag in a store I liked enough nor been able to convince myself that it would be OK to purchase one - I made four small totes to choose from for Christmas gifts! There is no justification for not making something myself if I can!

So over to Craftster it was. A quick search for tutorials, and I found one called "pleatness." It's about the same size as my H&M bag, sounds good.

I ended up dyeing a bunch of cotton duck in red and green to match up to some prints I was thinking of using. Which should I use, HMM HMM?


red with space?


green with metrics?

I ended up using the red/space. I learned a lot about the pattern from making this first one, and made a few mistakes.


wholething!


A space print inside, too.

This was a good decision, sort of: I've been carrying the thing around for two weeks now. The rocket print is flannel, which is an unusual choice for a bag.. It's not fraying at all, BUT the front is starting to pill and get reeeally dirty. Ack. My top wasn't wide enough to match up with the end panels, so I ended up just overlocking the ends and leaving them open. I also figured out I really need pockets inside!

Now I'm torn between making another bag with the green/metric print with the pleating, or replacing the pleated panels with quilted panels. Quilted bits would add nice structure, I think.. I'm just not sure what I want to do! I love the metric stuff, but it's corduroy and I don't want to quilt that..!