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May 29, 2007
It Wasn't So Bad
Saturday was my mom's birthday and sometime after Carole's post on her felted bag I decided to try to line my mom's Noni bag for her as a surprise birthday gift. She's been talking a lot about how she wants to use it and since it was her very first knitted project, I thought it would be a nice surprise (plus I'd get to practice my lining skills on a much smaller bag - two birds and all that). The surprise was aided by the fact my mom was out of town. The bad news was I had to find the bag, the handles and hardware, and the fabric in her house on my own. It was kind of comical. I found the bag and the fabric together within the first 5 minutes of my search. The hardware was another matter. I ended up taking everything out of one of her closets (vacuum, sewing machine, winter boots - everything), everything out of the baskets in her craft room/library, and I finally found what I was looking for in a bag next to her couch upstairs in her tv room. By that time I was freaking out because I didn't have a back-up birthday gift and I was sure I wasn't going to be able to find the materials I needed. But in the end it worked out. Thank goodness.
Saturday morning I sat down with the fabric, my stash of timtex and interfacing, the purse, and the hardware to develop a plan. It took me a little while to figure out what I needed to do - measuring, figuring, panicking - the works. Eventually I worked up the nerve to cut the fabric and the interfacing.
After I got the lining pieced attached to the interfacing (I'd forgotten how much a pain sewing with timtex is - gawd that stuff is stiff), I sewed all the lining pieces together. Because of the shape of the bag, I ended up using two side pieces and a bottom rather than making end pieces and side pieced. The bag is pretty much a barrel shape, so I just put a seam on each end. After I got it together I put it into the felted bag to check the fit.
The sides of the bag go in slightly and I didn't take that into account when I made the lining. I ended up just angling the sides - I took it in an inch at the top of both sides and angled the seam so it would meet the existing seams at the bottom. It ended up working just fine and that way I didn't have to use the seam ripper (bonus!). The final step for the lining was to turn the top under and finish it.
In a traditional bag you would just put the right side of the lining together with the right side of the outside (with the handles in between the two pieces) and sew them together and then turn everything right side out. But, because of the thickness of the felt and the fact that I didn't want to lose any of the felt to a seam, I finished the lining and then attached the finished lining to the felted bag.
The final step before putting everything together was to make the tabs for the handles and attach them to the lining.
I made the tabs as suggested by the Noni website and then measured and attached them to the lining. After that was all done all that was left was to sew the lining to the felted bag. I had planned to sew it on my machine, but the combination was too thick so it had to be done by hand. I was glad I had a movie to watch because it took me most of the movie to get the lining attached. All in all it took me about 7 hours to complete this project (and my mom is, of course, worth it). The good news is that the finished bag turned out really cute.
My mom was really surprised and she loved it. She went right home and put all her stuff in it and she says she's gotten lots of compliments on it in the last couple of days. So, I would say it was a good birthday gift and now I can try to do my bag. In case you're curious, the pattern she used is the same I used for my huge bag. Hers is the Smallish Carpet Baguette and mine is the Rather Huge Carpet Bag (both from the Fall 2005 Collection).
Comments
What a wonderful surprise! The bag turned out beautiful and stylish!
Posted by: grumperina at May 29, 2007 7:33 AM
That looks great! You did a much more "finished" job than I did with the interfacing and all.
Posted by: Carole at May 29, 2007 7:33 AM
wow. that is amazing. you did such a great job on that lining - wow.
Posted by: stacey at May 29, 2007 7:46 AM
WOW! It's beautiful. You do such good work. I sewed over the weekend, too but I'm not nearly so organized or capable!
Posted by: margene at May 29, 2007 8:22 AM
Fantastic! The lining makes a felted back so more usable. I made a felted bag when I first started knitting and used it right away... unlined. It wasn't long before the bottom was coated with all kinds of little scraplets of junk. The bag got kinda gross pretty quick.
Your lining looks so professional. Excellent work!
Posted by: wendee at May 29, 2007 8:40 AM
The process still looks bad, to me. But the end result of the finished and lined bag looks great.
Posted by: Wanda at May 29, 2007 8:40 AM
That is SOOOO impressive. What a lovely, lovely gift!
Posted by: Norma at May 29, 2007 8:53 AM
I love it! Lining makes such a difference, but what a pain! You did a great job...have you thought about becoming a PI?
Posted by: Marcia Cooke at May 29, 2007 9:15 AM
It looks fantastic, Stephanie! That was a truly inspired gift for your mom!
Posted by: Kristi aka Fiber Fool at May 29, 2007 10:28 AM
What a lovely, thoughtful gift! It looks fabulous!
Posted by: caitlyn at May 29, 2007 11:06 AM
It's just brilliant! i love the liner, and I love the orange felt. Looks wonderful, and I am happy to hear that your mom likes it too :)
Posted by: Lolly at May 29, 2007 11:23 AM
Wow, you did a great job! I love the fabric, and it looks just wonderful in the felted bag. What a lucky mom!
Posted by: Sulafaye at May 29, 2007 12:08 PM
It looks great! I knew it would be fabulous ;-)
Posted by: Steph at May 29, 2007 12:51 PM
Wow, what work to find all the parts! It turned out fabulous though!
Posted by: yaiAnn at May 29, 2007 4:58 PM
Awesome! What a great gift for your Mom and with the bonus of getting the practice. It looks fantastic.
Posted by: Sundara at May 29, 2007 5:54 PM
Very impressive! It looks wonderful. It makes my head spin just thinking about the sewing!
Posted by: Knittripps at May 29, 2007 7:53 PM
The bag looks wonderful, and I cant believe you did it all yourself. Good practice for when you do the next one. I love the lining fabric too, it matches the bag so well.
Posted by: Sue at May 29, 2007 10:39 PM
this bag is just super cute! I love the colour and the lining
Posted by: atia at June 1, 2007 3:17 PM
