Try, Try Again!

Good old social media, it brings out the best (and worst lol) in people! It’s so easy to think that that person that you follow has the perfect life with the best, most thoughtful partner, children that do no wrong and always say please and thank you, and all of that happens within the most esthetically perfect house! We’ve all seen the posts, it’s easy to feel envious for just a second, but then your common sense kicks in and you realize that’s just what they choose to show you…..only the good stuff that may or may not be partially B.S. lol! No one’s life is that good, and if they tell you it is, I’m just gonna say it…..THEY’RE LYING lol!

I personally like to keep it real, and not that I post on my personal social media very much, but when I do, it’s the good stuff and the bad stuff too, I mean not bad as in personal stuff that, in my humble opinion, shouldn’t be dragged out on any platform, but the “funny” bad stuff….like, I’d share a pic of a tub of sour cream that I knocked off the top refrigerator shelf and it crashed and splashed all over my kitchen, or a pic of my favourite shoe all chewed up by a baby pug…that kind of bad stuff! And as for here in my blog post, I’m gonna keep it real too….hence today’s “try, try again” title lol, so here we go!

We have another couple’s excursion coming up and this time we’re heading to a Blue Jays baseball game in Toronto, and before the game, we’re going to go on a tour of the stadium…all very exciting! Soooooo…..can you guess what I’m going to say now lol?!? You guessed it, you know me well…..I have to make something with our Blue Jays fabric to wear lol!

I previously made Blue Jays bucket hats for myself and my friend Geoff, not Jeff as in husband, but my friend Nancy’s husband Geoff lol…..here’s a pic of us at the game wearing our matching hats!

So….I have a hat, I’ll borrow a jersey from Geoff and Nancy as they have lots, I guess all that’s left for me to make is a bag lol! Surprise surprise lol!

As you always must do these days, I checked the Bag Policy:

Ok, I can absolutely work within that size, in fact, I only want something small to carry my phone and a few essentials, and if I can also store my hat in there if I’m not wearing it, that’s a bonus!

The search began for a pattern, and it was quickly determined that none that I currently owned were quite right. Most were too big for what I wanted so off to my favourite designer’s websites to see what I could find! I narrowed it down to 2, one from Linds Handmade and one from Sew Sweetness:

They are very similar in size and function, but there was one feature on the Fab Sling that won me over, and that’s the clear vinyl pocket on the back that allows you to use your phone while it’s in there!!! This seems like such a genius idea, a great way to protect your phone but still be able to use it when you want to!

I also liked the bigger flap on the Fab Sling, I thought it would be the perfect place to add a little extra something-something!

Wherever possible, Lindsay, the designer, includes SVG files so that means I could quickly and easily cut the entire bag on my Cricut! I do a batch interfacing on my cottons first using Fuse Flex and my Cricut then cuts through the 2 layers easily and cleanly, it’s amazing…..it even cut the clear vinyl!

Now, I’ve said many times that I don’t very often veer off from the pattern instructions, but this time I knew I was going to! First off, the pattern has you making your own strap that finishes up at 5/8″, which, of course, means that the hardware you’ll need is 5/8″, and that is something I do not own! I decided I would use what i had, which is 1″ webbing, and hope that it worked lol! Speaking of the hardware, I wanted to exclude some of it, in particular the swivel hooks, so I decided that I would just sew my strap right into the bag on one side, and because I still wanted it to be adjustable, I would use just one d-ring on the other side and use a strap slide on the webbing! Easy, right?!? Well, my friend….that’s what I thought anyway lol!

Oh yes, and another important part of this story is that there are 2 options for the top part of the bag itself which you see when you lift the flap up, a rounded front piece which would be more challenging due to the itty-bitty size of the bag, or a slightly easier version that is simply straight across. Well, this self-proclaimed bagineer didn’t balk at the challenge of the curve….which would prove to be a bad decision lol!

It was all going pretty well, up until I tried to put a snap into the back vinyl pocket, which isn’t a required step, just a “if you want to you can” kind of thing. Well, I wish I hadn’t tried because it turned out the snaps I had weren’t able to work in the thickness of my materials…and this was discovered AFTER I made the hole to put the snap in ugggggg! This meant I had a gaping hole and I couldn’t just leave it like that so I did the only thing I could think of doing and that was to put a rivet in it lol! Now at least there’s no hole, and it just kind of looks like there’s a snap there, when in reality it’s just purely cosmetic with no purpose, well, other than to cover the hole lol! Onward I went lol!

Strap alteration seemed to work great, I figured that part out quite easily and then I sewed the lining and exterior together and it was almost done, I just needed to turn everything right side out, which I did and then I saw it, I saw the disaster lol!

I don’t know how I didn’t take a picture of it, I do remember thinking, “you should take a picture of this to share in the blog” lol, but I don’t think I actually did! Once I quit laughing, I grabbed the seam ripper and took it apart to see if I could salvage some of it or if I had to start over from scratch!

What happened was, and this might be hard to picture but bare with me lol…..because I used 1″ webbing instead of a 5/8″ strap, some of the webbing was in the rounded part, which meant that the strap very much appeared to be coming out of the rounded part so it almost pointed straight to the front of the bag! When I put the flap down, the strap folded the flap outwards……..I don’t think any of this makes sense so just trust me, it was awful lol!!!!!

Once it was apart, it became crystal clear to me that the issue was just that curve so if I recut those 2 curved pieces, but did the straight across one instead, it should be fine because then it wouldn’t matter if my webbing carried over to the front of the bag a bit….I hoped anyway lol!

So finally, weeks later, I finally sat down at my machine and gave it a go again, this time with the straight across pieces and, friends…..IT WORKED!!!!!! Aye yi yi, was anyone else holding their breath lol?!? So while it’s not perfect, there’s a couple of design “features” lol, but I’m still so happy with it, and I’m excited to share it with you….finally lol!

Isn’t she so cute?!? And if I hadn’t shared all the trials and tribulations around her, you would have thought it was just a wonderful bag and was nearly perfect lol! Nope, we’re keeping it real around here friends!

You’ll notice that on the outside and the inside of the flap, I did a little fussy cutting of the Blue Jays logo and then used some Lite Steam A Seam to permanently adhere it! It’s a fun and easy little extra thing that I think turned out awesome! And right there, see that rivet I was talking about….doesn’t it just look like a snap lol?!?

And if you’re wondering if I can actually use my phone when it’s behind the vinyl, yes, it totally works! I can press all the buttons and make it do all the things, which is also very cool!

Whew, that seemed like a long one so if you’re still here with me than thank you lol! I will gladly share a pic of me and my cute little bag at the game when it happens later on this month!

Do you have any “oopsies” like this that you’d like to share, cause I’d love to hear them….”misery loves company” is how the saying goes, right lol?!?

Have an amazing week friends, and we’ll chat again next week….I’ve already got another project done to share with you then!

Shawna