Another gift finished...

I am so glad I finished this one today - it means I've only got my pebble quilting (and border quilting, and binding?!) to go on my charmed prints quilt, and then I've finished my gift making... hopefully in time for the actual gift giving day. I am starting to doubt this a bit, but my other half has promised me as much time as I need tomorrow to get them done, so it should all be good. I hope.

This is my sister's present (who doesn't read my blog so it's safe to post this before I give it to her).

I used Elizabeth Hartman's Margaret bag pattern - and it is a great pattern. Straight forward to follow, and it works really well. I would totally recommend using a walking foot for sewing the lining to the exterior though - there are LOTS of layers to get through where the closing strap is and even with my walking foot, my machine struggled to sew through all the layers. It's probably a good idea to take more time placing the interlining than I did - it wasn't perfectly centred and so I had to sew through it when stitching the front and back together (rather than have it just inside the seam lines). Not a big problem though - you can't tell at all once it's all sewn together.

The fabric I used is Light Bright by Alexander Henry, and the lining is Kona black. I made the pockets from the exterior fabric, just to make it easier to find where they are (black on black may have been a bit invisible...) The button is a fabric-covered one in the same fabric as the exterior of the bag.

This is the cross-body version of the Margaret bag, and it really is the perfect fit - the bag sits right near my hip (so I'm hoping it fits my sister as well - she's a bit taller than me). It's quite a roomy bag - so I think it will be good for carting all the extra baby-paraphernalia required for a small baby as well as the normal wallet, keys, phone etc.

Off to pebble quilt,

Happy stitching,
Jess