Conquering the Professional Tote (Pt 3)

Fabric all cut out...

It's October 21 when I finally put scissors to my Polar Party fabric... officially hitting the point of no return on the PT Project!

However, it turns out that I am going to be facing a more challenging project than I intended. Colleen — bless her heart and her seamstress experience — thought that in order to have this tote bag be sturdy enough not to flop over, bought me Pellon Peltex interfacing instead of the recommended Decor Bond.

Now, you have to understand that at this point, I am totally ignorant about the names of any interfacing, or in fact, what any of them might feel like. (It is not until I do some more searching on the internet later that I find a great little piece about interfacing from Sew Sweetness and eventually learn what all seamstresses need to know.) At the time, for all I knew, the Decor Bond was also stiff and cardboard-like. Turns out, not really. Not only does the Peltex feel a lot different from the Decor Bond, it also comes in a narrower width. The amount that I have is not enough to go under all of my fabric pieces, but then — at the thickness that this stuff brings — I don't want it under all of my fabric pieces.

So you guessed it: I had to decide which fabric pieces would get the treatment and which wouldn't. (I also had to remove strips of the Peltex from along the seams to keep them from getting too thick.) When Colleen came over to check on my progress and bring me the remainder of my fabric (see photo at top), she agreed that no amount of "adjustment" would make the top zipper section workable if I continued to use the Peltex. So, some Decor Bond was going to come my way after all.

On October 28, I finally dropped my sewing machine's needle into fabric and sewed the bag's straps.

A very clean join if I do say so myself!

And so the adventure continues...