Sidekick Suitcase Sew Along- Progress Report

Well I promised to keep everyone updated on my progress

as I continue work on my first sew along.

I've just begun and already feel like I'm conquering so many firsts

which is pretty darn exciting.

I've already shown you all my materials.

I have to say, the more I work on this project, the more I love my fabric choices.

(patting myself on the back)

 

Having materials you love makes the tedious task of cutting out all of your pieces so much more bearable and even fun in this case.

Once I got over that molehill, the next step was making the piping.

I have never made piping

and I would be lying if I didn't mention that this step was more than a little horrifying to me.

But Jodi included some great tips, including this little gem of a resource that she found for turning a fat quarter into more than 5 yards of bias tape.

Turns out piping isn't difficult,

but (and this is a big but) like zippers, you'll save yourself a lot of heartache by using the correct tools,

and in this case its a zipper foot.

For some reason I have 3 zipper feet, and they're all different.

After using the foot that I normally use for zippers, my piping was a baggy, lumpy mess.

I then switched to a smaller zipper foot, moved my needle all the way to the left, and I ran the piping through my sewing machine again.

This did the trick, and I now have much nicer, more tailored piping.

So you can see in my picture (above) that I have two seam lines, but they'll be hidden anyway,

so no big whoop. thank goodness.

Next step was the lining. I got to play with my awesome houndstooth fabric again. love it.

 

Then, I had a little extra time (and thought I should take advantage of it) and I got a head start on my accents.

I decided to add an initial to my Ben's suitcase, so I found a font I liked...

blew up a 'B'

and cut it out to use as a stencil for my accent fabric and some heat-n-bond.

 

iron on

zig zag around...

 

cut around my second layer...

iron on

zig zag around...

and done.

Instead of using my houndstooth for the corner patches, I had just enough corduroy to use for the 8 of those. perfect. love it.

 

So that's it! So far, so good!

More to come so stay tuned.