sew together bag

Sew Together Bag by SewDemented, a killer pouch with 4!!! zippers, was on my to do list for quite some time. I made one a few months ago and loved the way it looked, but I wanted to make another one and use fusible fleece instead of interfacing to make it more sturdy.

So, I pulled out some pretty fabrics and got cutting, pressing, pinning, clipping, zipper installing, whole pouch wrestling, and a few hours later I had my pouch all finished.

Looks pretty simple on the outside, doesn't it? Want to see all those zippers I talked about? Let me show you the inside.

Crazy fun, isn't it? My children are fascinated (and puzzled) by the idea of three pouches inside of the fourth one. Now, as you can imagine, this was not an easy, throw it together in no time, pouch. I had to think, think, and think again, especially when it came to all the zippers and the final assembly of the pouch.

And my trusty seam ripper got quite a workout as I was trying to make sure things lined up and zipper pulls were all on the right side. 

I must admit, though, this perfect lining up of the top binding was totally, amazingly accidental.

I made a few changes to the way I made this pouch. First, I attached fusible fleece to both the exterior panel as well as the main pocket panels, as opposed to using just regular interfacing. I love how much body my pouch has now. 

I also added fusible fleece to the side panels which made for a very tricky final assembly and accumulation of unnecessary bulk on the sides. Next time I will definitely use medium weight interfacing for the side panels.

Also, I decided to attach all my binding by hand instead of using the machine. I figured since there was so much bulk and many layers to go through, there was no way I was going to sew a perfectly even and straight stitch. Hand finishing gave me a lot more control over the binding and I love how pretty and even it all turned out. Yes, crooked stitches and uneven binding drive me crazy :)

To sum it all up, I don't think this is a pouch for a beginner. But, if you're confident at installing zippers and have finished a few pouches or bags already, I would highly recommend you give it a go. You might feel like your brain is about to explode as you're trying to work out all the steps, but you will definitely not be disappointed at the end.

Any questions? Let me know. Svetlana

Linking up to Finish it up Friday.