Zipper voted off the island

I’ve spent the past few days putting together a 62-page booklet (most of it double-sided) to profile our community for a provincial competition called Communities in Bloom. I wasn’t expecting it to turn out so big, but I was happy with it. So were my co-committee members and the judges seemed to be satisfied with it as well. Now I’m making two dozen devilled eggs for a lunch with the judges tomorrow that is being held in my next door neighbour’s backyard. She and her husband have a lovely backyard. Mine will be some day, but it is still in development. I’ll be working on it while I’m on vacation for the next four weeks.

I fixed my latest bag yesterday. It was easy. Just unstitched the exterior and interior and tacked down the strap and the flap like I should have in the first place, put the exterior and interior together like I should have in the first place. I took these pictures against out back fence tonight as the sun was setting. I look the ragged look of our back fence, but the partner is threatening to paint it. He hates the way it looks. I think it provides a very artistic backdrop.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to add the zipper at this point. Seems to me that I should have added it way back before I stitched the exterior together. I may still figure out a way, but I’m not so sure.

Except for the zipper, once my brain clicked into gear, it all came together quite easily. I still forgot to re-enforce the welt pocket. The “cargo” pocket I made on the side was actually a pleated pocket. Next time I try this I need to flare the top so that it doesn’t fit so snuggly against the fabric. I didn’t use any interface in this bag because I thought the fabrics would be stiff enough, but they weren’t really. They could have used a little extra reinforcement. I put pockets on the front under where the flap falls – pockets for cell phones or narrow writing pads and pens. There are another two pockets inside to hold “stuff”.

I like the straps, although I made them a bit long for my own liking. Not so long, though, that I can’t see myself using it. But I made the strap 4 inches wide and then ran out of material – FINALLY! Yay, I got rid of it! But, how to finish a bag when you’re short of material? I cut the strap four inches wide, turned the sides in a quarter-inch and ironed them that way. Then I cut a four-inch strip of the “fuschia” material I used for the pockets just to try and keep a little  consistency. I turned the edges under like I did with the main material, ironed it and sewed them both together, with the exterior bag fabric, and attached it to the bag so that the “fuschia” material was on the underside. I like wide straps, especially on a messenger bag.

I’m still disappointed that I didn’t get the zipper to fit.One of these days, I will look on these blogs and laugh because zippers will have become simple and I will have other challenges to overcome.

Tomorrow evening there will be a New Moon at 27 Cancer. The Moon is exalted in Cancer since it is the Moon’s own sign, and that is always good. Cancereans love their homes and their families. They also love looking back at their heritage. It’s a good time for inviting close friends to come into your home an quilt. Watery themes are highlighted, with pale silver and pearl colours. Let your inner crab free! Personally, it’s going to square my Mars which is going to sting, but it’s all in the way you react to life’s challenges. We’ll get through it.

Until next time,