January 18-20: Lunch bag with wristlet

The project for January 18-20 is a lunch sack with a wristlet strap from IS*LY.

I made a lot of changes to this tutorial, and I will tell you why.  Because I am NUTS, and, again, I will tell you why.

When I first saw this lunch bag, I was really excited to make it.  I have a job, I eat food, I always get a occasionally get a lunch break -- perfect bag to tote back and forth to the office.  I had a bright idea to maybe use some vinyl-ish fabric that I have in my stash to make this not only a little sturdier, but to also make it a bit more spill-leak-water-sauce proof.  Then, OH THEN!, I spotted some oilcloth that I had left over from some travel bags that I had made and had never found a perfect use for again.  So, I decided so make this bag with the oilcloth.  Good idea, right?

Ha.  HahahaSOB.  (Earmuff small children and the elderly now!) THIS? was a b-i-t-c-h to sew.  Stitches were skipping, the fabric was shifting, birdsnests were forming and turning (oh! the turning!) was like a workout for my arms.  I looked over the IS*LY blog while I was getting the full links, and everything over there is just great, so I know that the fault totally lies with me and my stupid fabric choice.

Without all of the gory, swear word riddled details, the modifications I made were:
1. No lining.  Oilcloth doesn't fray, the wrong side is still water and spill proof, so there wasn't a need (thank goodness).
2. No inner pockets, because there was no lining.
3. Only one outer pocket because I started getting swear-y after sewing on the first one, and decided I could live without the second.
4. The enclosure flap was just one piece, so none of that sew together, turn right side out, topstitch business (thank goodness again).
5. No corner pleats because I had cried uncle at that point.  If I had to feed that oilcloth under my presserfoot one more time I was likely to burst into tears and besides I like that the top opens really wide and makes the inside extra roomy, OK?!?!

That said, the sack doesn't look so bad.  And for all the sweating and cringing that the oilcloth caused, I did enjoy not popping over to the ironing board to press seams every five seconds.  It's possible that when the pain of putting this together dulls a bit I'll go back and try the fabric/lined version. 

PS -- I was checking out my stats the other day and noticed that a ton of visitors were referred by googling for drawstring bag tutorials.  Since I hate to think of how all those people were disappointed to find that I don't have that tutorial, I'm going to try to put on together in the next week or so.