PPC27: The Best Laid Plans…

June 21, 2022 / Kat /

So…

In our last post I said that we were very happy with the progress on our new pattern design for Fall 2022, but were more than a little concerned about the bag opening area to the main compartment. It felt unnecessarily hard and laborious.

But now I can imagine that you might be looking at this picture and thinking… “Wait a sec… something about this sample just doesn’t look like the last sample!”  and you know what?

You’d be absolutely RIGHT!
But let me explain!

Have you ever had one of those days (or a week of days) where everything you did just seems to go to s%#t? Well that’s what happened to me when I tried to make this sample not too long after we got back from the AQS Paducah show!

So what happened?

Well… in a nutshell, my mind just wasn’t on my work!

As you can see in this picture above, the difference between this particular sample
and the sample we showed you in our last post is REALLY obvious!

Here’s how it all went down!

After I got caught up from our trip to KY, BOTH of my 89-year old parents came down with Covid-19, 1st my Mom, and then 5 days later, my Dad. and yeah, they were both vaccinated and boosted but they somehow contracted the Omicron variant anyway, and since they live in a independent living group situation they became totally quarantined in their quarters.

Now don’t get me wrong, I understood the position of the group home completely, but it threw the responsibility for their care completely on me because after all, they couldn’t get out for groceries, drug store items and believe me, they could NEVER have set up the ZOOM appointments with their doctors on their own. And besides… given their age, the situation was a little scary!

Even with everything going on though, the best way I knew to relax myself and get my mind off everything going on… is to work. But just look at the mess I made of this Card Caddy! My 1st mistake was to not stitch the Welts in place at the correct time. I just wasn’t paying close enough attention to my own directions for a design I had only made two times previously. My mind was obviously elsewhere, so I ripped out the seams on each side of the Caddy, made the Welts, placed them in the seams and stitched them in place. But it wasn’t until after I clipped the curves & trimmed the seams that I realized that I had placed the Welts in the opposite way that they should have been placed.
And now, with the seams already clipped & trimmed and having also been ripped out once before….

This Caddy was a TOTAL loss for sure!

The only thing I could do was to call it what it was… A Total Loss,,, and start all over again. Now believe me when I say that I totally despise giving up and starting over again! But sometimes the best thing you can do it to just cut your losses. So anyway, this is how it looked the 2nd time, and if this was the only BIG mistake I made, it would’ve been regrettable but  forgettable… but here’s the deal…

This was only the 1st of TWO big mistakes I made, and the 2nd mistake was WAY WORSE!!!

It happened when I got to the zipper for the main compartment. You might remember from our last post that this was an area that I was dissatisfied with, but lo and behold it was even MORE problematic this time than last time! You see, as hard as this top section was to accomplish last time, (when I used an old separating zipper I had in my junk pile), it was totally impossible to put together with a closed bottom zipper!
 

And try as I might, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that there was just absolutely, positively NO WAY this section could be finished with a closed bottom zipper (which I have to admit is better to find out now than later). But additionally, since I made the decision several years ago to discontinue the majority of zipper styles that we carry in the separating variety, AND since I really do not want to go back to stocking them, then it appears that I’ll need to do a MAJOR redesign of this Bag Top area in the next round.

But once again, since it was too late to salvage THIS bag with a redesign, I was faced with the decision to either throw the entire bag in the trash or cut my losses and salvage what I could and predictably… I opted to salvage what I could of the time I’d spent on this sample…. (after all, I did learn some good lessons in the process).

So I literally cut off the top area of this bag, (including the closed bottom zipper) and finished it off with an impromptu inset zipper. I’ll obviously never be able to associate this bag in any way with the new design, because it’s going to look SO different that the final incarnation for this design, but that doesn’t mean it has to be thrown away either, right ? I’ll figure out something to do with this bag… (it may get gifted to someone)… but in the meantime…

I sure am glad I bought more fabric than I thought I might need because look at how little I had left over after two pretty serious screw-ups, right?

So do stay tuned for the next post in this series when we’ll show you the next incarnation in this edition of Purse Pattern Chronicles when I’ll show you the first REAL sample of our new pattern design! I PROMISE this time!   🙂

And now, it’s YOUR turn!

If you have comments you’d like to share or questions you’d like to ask about this design in general or this sample in specific, please feel free to leave either or both in the space provided below.

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Kat

4 Comments

  1. Beth on June 21, 2022 at 9:04 pm

    I hope your parents are both over the covid. That’s so worrisome. It’s very understandable that your mind might not be on your work. If a zipper isn’t going to work, would a couple of magnets do better? The zipper was cute with the end hanging loose. I know you’ll soon have this figured out to your satisfaction! The owl fabric is adorable! Best wishes!



    • Kat on June 22, 2022 at 7:30 am

      Thanks Beth. My folks have recovered nicely but yes, it was worrisome! And I can’t wait to show you our next incarnation of the new design!



  2. Kay Marsh on June 22, 2022 at 2:24 pm

    How blessed you are to have both parents and I am grateful for their health recovery. As for the new bag design, I like the look and style of recessed zippers and use that in most of the simple tote bags that I have sewn. I also like the cat bag “extended” top. If I were to lovingly hack this pattern, I would try to emulate the shorter zippered opening on the Gemini flight bag (my favorite bag to use for the past six month). But as Beth stated, I’m sure as the designer, you will figure it out to your satisfaction, and I will like it too.



    • Kat on June 22, 2022 at 5:07 pm

      Thanks for your kind words Kay. I can’t wait to show you my next sample! 🙂