New Year, New Machine, New Book

Happy new year to you. I realise its a little late on as we're swiftly heading for the middle of the month already.The days disappear like sand through my fingers at the moment.
So, did I start the year with any new years resolutions? No not really. I want to lose a little weight after the Christmas excesses, but that doesn't really count. I did however, start the year with a list of things to make, a refreshed and hopefully organised mind, and a new sewing machine.
The old machine which I believe I threatened with a demise right here, ploughed on like a trooper with all of my Christmas present makes, finally giving up the ghost on Christmas eve by firing bits of metal at me. It had obviously had enough and so had I. So after Christmas, and with a bit of money burning a hole in my pocket, I hit the sales and purchased a new machine. Its easy to be lured into more expensive models with the promise of a shed load of decorative stitches, but my budget was limited and when I thought about it, I probably only use a running stitch and zigzag on a regular basis. So a basic machine is what I got, just by a manufacturer I'd actually heard of. And its lovely. I'm a happy bunny!
I needed to put my new acquisition through its paces. New bag. Well it is the new year after all. Much as I love my Alice in Wonderland White Rabbit bag, its a bit like a cavern. I can never find my keys. Organisation is the key. Organisation is the keys..

This is my new bag. The pattern came from this book: Sew Serendipity Bags by Kay Whitt.

I'm always on the lookout for new bag making books and I'd already got the first one of these which is clothing. I was lured by the picture of the ruffled bag on the cover which is gorgeous and my bag is the unruffled bag.
This is a lovely book, with twelve bag patterns- paper templates included at the back, and its also spiral bound so you don't lose your place at an essential moment. Bags include: Grocery bags with three size variations, Lunch Bucket Bag, Cross Body Purses, Quilted Duffel Bag, Socialite Handbag, Convertible Backpack and a Laptop Messenger Bag and they are divided up into three sections, simple, intermediate and challenging.

This was from the intermediate section- I've been doing this a while, thought I could handle it.. well I got there in the end, but there was a lot of reading and re reading the instructions. There are no photos to guide you through, just some sketches which are okay, but still take a bit of working out and it was a way of making bags I hadn't done before. A word of warning-these are not bags you can quickly throw together, this one took me an hour of cutting the pieces, then four hours the following evening, down to making the zipper charm which I was fiddling away with at 11.45pm, determined to finish. I imagine it must add another good couple of hours on if you put the ruffles on too and it would make the seams even bulkier to sew. My beautiful new machine might have struggled with that.
But I do like a challenge and this book has certainly provided me with that. Having flicked through it again, to write this, I've seen several more that I want to make which is always a good sign. A serious book for the serious bag maker and quite a high head scratching rating to boot.

Take care. xx