Fifth Time's the Charm

I needed a bag to hold everything we needed to go play at the water park a week or so ago. I was unable to find anything that met my needs, so I thought I would make a bag. I knew I could make something simple that would be large enough to hold the items, but then I found a pattern that fit what I needed AND had a zipper AND had a lot of pockets. Zippers are always a plus. I picked up all of the materials, went home and spent the night working on the bag so that it would be ready to go the next day. *Note to self: just because you are awake and can't sleep does NOT mean that you can function well enough to try a new type of pattern. Also, don't try to complete an entire bag the night before you want to use it.

The first time through I somehow managed to sew the zipper inside the bag. I mean completely inside the bag-- in between the lining and the outside fabric. I unpicked, sewed the bag together again, only to find that I had the zipper piece sewn in upside down. I grabbed my trusty seam ripper again, then set to work sewing the bag for a third time. I didn't understand the instructions of the pattern because it was not working out properly and I couldn't figure out what to do with the ends of the zipper piece. I tried sewing them in, but that was obviously not the answer. Frustrated, I gave up at this point. The next morning, I ran to Target as fast as I could before we left for the water slides and found this bag:

I wish I could say that I saved a ton of money on the bag that I made, but the materials were the same price as this bag that I purchased at Target. It doesn't have nearly as many pockets as the pattern bag, though. With a finished model, my bag pattern now made sense. I knew what to do with the zipper piece. So, now that my bag pattern made sense, I started unpicking again last night. I sewed the bag together again. It was one of those perfect times when the stars are aligned and you run out of bobbin thread right as you finish your last seam. I was so pleased. Then I looked at the bag. I lined up seams of the lining and seams of the bag, but the lining seams were its center and the bag seams were its corners. The handles and the bag were skiwampus. I unpicked, yet again, and on the 5th time I finally managed to get the bag right.

The correct way to handle the zipper piece:

Beautiful pockets on the sides, ready to hold water bottles:

Two pockets on the front of the bag. They're pretty big, so I'm not sure yet what will go in them.

I didn't take any pictures of the inside pockets. I did a bit of adapting to meet my needs here. I ALWAYS need to have pens in my bags, so I made some narrow pockets that will house pens and/or pencils. The lining also features some larger pockets, so that it has a total of 8 pockets.

Here is the final bag:

May it see years of service and may I come to love it after all of the seam-ripping pain it caused me.

This makes 1 WIP finished for my month of no spending on crafting supplies. I also used some leftover fabric to make some bean bags. I have plans for those for another time.