Lessons Learned

Earlier this season, my brother commented that my reusable bags were really nice. I decided to make him a couple for Christmas. I finally had time to buy the fabric a week before Christmas, and washed the fabric that night at my mom's. However, I didn't end up having time that weekend to cut and sew the bags. I worked up to the 22nd, came down with a cold, went shopping with my dad on the 23rd, went to his wife's for Christmas Eve... and came home that night to bags that were still looking an awful lot like a wrinkled piece of fabric. So I started cutting and sewing.

Finally, shortly after 4:00 am, I had a Christmas gift ready:

(I bought 2m of fabric to make 2 bags, since cotton canvas tends to shrink a lot, but somehow still had enough fabric to make three bags. Bonus!)

Lessons learned:

1. Sewing takes way longer than I think it will.

2. Buy lots of thread... sewing takes way more than I think it will. (And stores aren't open at 3:00 am on Christmas morning.)

"I don't need to buy thread," I thought, "I have matching thread at home!"

It was true... I did have matching thread at home:

However, it ran out half way through sewing the top on the second bag. My back-up green was a greyish green, and looked plain grey against the lime green fabric:

So I tried a contrasting red that matched some of the design. Unfortunately, either my seamstress skills suck, or there was a reason the sewing machine only cost $100. The above photo is the wrong side. The right side looks rather worse:


(And here I thought I could sew straight lines on non-slippery fabric.)

Oh well... they're sturdy, and will carry groceries just fine.

Next time I promise to try to remember to buy extra thread.