Sandhill Sling

I mentioned last time that in lieu of participating in the Super Secret Swap for Sewtopia, that I wanted to make myself a swap package, so to speak. I wanted to give myself permission to make something hard that I've wanted for a while in the pretty fabric. I intended to justify purchasing fabric if I chose, but in the end, I used fabric from my stash. I did have to buy a couple pieces of hardware, but otherwise, I had everything. I love being able to turn to my stash for most of the things I need. It's really fun to shop your stash and not be limited by what's available at the quilt shop. 

I decided that what I really wanted, what I had taken screenshots of most for a possible mosaic for the swap, was a sling bag. I purchased the Sandhill Sling pattern by Anna Graham of Noodlehead over Black Friday and settled on making it. 

Luckily, I have a nice selection of canvas in my stash, including a lot of Rifle Paper Co, and some Ruby Star. There are some really phenomenal canvas prints out there, and I settled on a floral Rifle Paper. It went great with a large scrap of Essex linen and I opted to line it with a postage stamp print by Rifle Paper, though I didn't have enough. I made the pocket out of a starry print by Rifle Paper, right? I'm pretty sure...

And, I used zipper by the yard for the first time. The pattern uses a double head zipper, and I found some YKK zippers at my favorite Etsy shop, Zipit, but then I realized that a lot of people are using zipper by the yard for their handbags because the manufacturer (not YKK...) are making nylon zippers with metallic painted teeth so you get the benefit of looking like a metal zipper without the difficulty of shortening metal zippers. I found a different seller with a nice variety and ordered a few different tapes with some pulls, but I went with the one I had originally planned, a gray and white striped tape with silver coils. I think it turned out so sharp, and I'm so glad! 

The bag went together pretty quickly and mostly easily, although I did break for a couple of weeks in the middle while I worked on the quilt top for my fabric challenge project. I managed to finish it, and the backing, and had a couple of days before I could get up to a different shop for the Aurifil thread I picked out for quilting (which I ended up going in a different direction, but that's another post...) so I finished up the bag. 

It was mostly easy until the very last finishing step, which is brilliant, in that it allows you to have a fully finished lining without binding or hand-stitching a hold closed, but it was tricky. I can't even describe it easily, but it's brilliant. I found a 505 glue stick at my local shop while I was buying batting for my challenge quilt and it helped a lot with basting for the final step. 

Now my biggest decision is whether I want to start using it now or whether I want to save it like it's a swap package for sewtopia. It's only about 5 weeks away at this point...