Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Sad Little Backpack

Did you have have a home craft project go terribly wrong? And you knew it was going badly before 1/2 way through the project and yet you persevered in denial thinking..."Well, maybe I will be surprised and it might turn out ok?"

Yep, this is the little backpack gone bad. Sad little backpack.

I had a pattern. So I can't blame it on not being able to figure it out. I even had nice fabric, which thankfully I scored on serious sale or I'd be even more depressed than I am now...backpackless and a wee bit mopey.

Here is what went wrong. I listened to this lady who really looked like she knew what she was doing at my favorite J store. I have some issues staying away from the J store. Anyway, I was grumbling about the price of pre-quilted double sided fabric since I wanted to make myself knock off Vera Bradley bags. I like some of these handbags but I'm not $90 in love with them. So, I strike up a conversation with this employee at the J store who tells me "Don't pay $17.00 a yard for pre-quilted fabric, honey. Quilt it yourself." She goes on and on about how easy it is and if I have any experience with fabrics and my sewing machine...it will be a cinch.

Ha, crazy J store lady was indeed on drugs. It wasn't a cinch. It was a nightmare. Trying to get the batting evenly in between the two layers with out bunching was time consuming and frustrating to say the least. I have serious holes in 6 of my fingers.

After, 1/2 ass quilting the material I tried to use it. Perhaps I used too much batting. It was too thick to fold and double fold and then try to get into the machine. I broke 6 needles on this project from hell.

I just couldn't come out of denial that it would be a wash after all that work. So, I persevered. And I tried to fix by hand sewing some pieces. I finished it this afternoon, took a picture, wrote about it and will be cutting off the expensive D rings to use for a later project. I plan to also cut off the straps and make a little tote bag out of some of the scraps.

Sad little backpack project. Chalk this one up to live and learn.

2 comments:

OziMum said...

I sympathise with you! I've made 4 quilts now, all just 5" squares sewn together. Nothing fancy. The detail is all in the fabric, not my crappy sewing! I followed my quilt lady and sister-in-laws advice to try something different, for the quilt for my bed. I did. I don't like it. My Mum wants a quilt... it's gonna be 5" squares sewn together!
Moral of the story - stick to what you know, different isn't necessarily good!

Space Mom said...

It doesn't look so bad, but from the description I can see what you mean...and I am new to the sewing thing!

Hangin there...