Some projects turn out like you 'see' them in your mind, like the recent quilted Bible bookcover...
....and some projects do not, like this duffel bag I recently completed for my husband, Tom, who needed a bag to hold his tennis shoes, change of clothes and water bottle for his 2 mile walks after work...
....poor thing, it looks a little pitiful in these photographs....
It is pretty neat in that it is loaded with pockets...
...one on each side and 2 built-in with the webbing straps...one on the front/one on the back...4 total...
...a nice sport zipper...
...the stripes matched up evenly...
So what happened.. .why am I not 'loving' this bag...
....for one....it's huge..it's more like a 'weekender' sized bag than a bag for tennis shoes and change of clothes... I've got 2 full-sized pillows in there to 'shape' it for these photographs!...
...and the fabric choice...
...that seemed like a good idea at the time...
....an outdoor heavy-weight canvas from my stash....
...turned out way too 'stripey'.....I should've made a trip to the fabric store.
What about the pattern....
....the pattern was actually quite simple...
....I just didn't comprehend 'size on paper' vs. 'size completed'....
....this pattern is for a circle shaped duffel bag and I wanted a square bottom so I made a new template for the design I wanted....which meant I had to change/modify ALL her measurements.... basically re-make the pattern, but follow her instructions...no problem, just took a little more time....
....it was actually an easy project....
....from this book "Made For Travel" by Mary Mulari....I love this book!
A little story about how I obtained this book..... our local library had a copy of this book that I could (almost always) count on to be available for me to check out whenever I wanted to use it....but all of a sudden, it was never there any time I stopped in....it had simply vanished.
Our library system has a book sale each month, of which we've never attended, until this one Sunday afternoon we happened to be in the area and thought it'd be fun to see what the sale was all about...and imagine my surprise to find this book for sale for $1.00!!!! It had been discarded, pulled from circulation and ready to be sold----to me!! I was so happy.
Back to the duffel bag....I am going to make another....shortening the length considerably.... the width too... but still basically following Mary Mulari's instruction... with my modifications.
Meanwhile, Tom is using this one and Melissa wants it when his next new one is complete.
So I guess it will be used after all. She says she likes it..... !!
~Lisa
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