Sewing with the grandchildren again – Caitlyn’s organiser bag

Caitlyn (13) had a more challenging project to sew.  But she handled it well.  We used the free pattern by Caroline on sewcanshe.com.

Caitlyn chose some great fabrics.  The first change we made to the supplies was to use plastic instead of mesh for the lower pockets.  While this looks good it was a bit tricky to sew as it didn’t slide easily on the machine.  This can be overcome by taping a sheet of parchment paper on the machine to the left of the needle.  We used Fast2Fuse to stiffen the front and back sections and although this will made the bag very stable it makes sewing round the corners a bit fiddly as it doesn’t have as much flexibility as a heavy weight interfacing.  The last point was that we added a strip of tape inside the bias binding that runs along the top edge where it created the handles – this was for strength.

Adding the bias binding

Here’s the front of the bag. Plastic pocket has a blue bias binding strip along the top.  Second set of pockets is the wavy strip fabric behind.

Front of the bag

The back is similar to the front but on the inside there is a zipped pocket.

Back view of the bag

This bag took a bit of concentrating and taking it slowly.  In the end she made a lovely little bag which was immediately filled and put to use – and that’s what it is all about, isn’t it?

Now, I need a rest in a darkened room – only joking.

Hilary