Style Stitches Challenge 2: Reversible Everyday Shopper done!

It was a productive weekend in sewing land, and among other things, I finished bag #2 — the reversible everyday shopper — for the Style Stitches sewing challenges at Jem Jam and My Crafty Crap (did I mention I found another blog doing the same challenge, so now I'm following both?).

This bag was so much easier than last month's Cosmo bag, which was a nice break. While there were still a lot of pieces to cut and interface, they were all rectangles, which made things so much easier. The actual construction of the bag was super fast.

I didn't have any major problems with this one. However, I got a little ahead of myself when I started sewing things together. There's only supposed to be one pocket on the outside of the bag (with the other big pocket on the inside), but instead I accidentally put them both on the outside, one on each side. I didn't realized my error until it was too late — I started reading ahead in the instructions about how to put the final bag together, and it said to place the exterior bag inside the interior bag, making sure the pockets were on opposite sides of the bag. Mine, of course, already were, but not in the way she meant. :)

I think it turned out ok, though. I like the look of the pockets on the outside, and it gave me an excuse to add a smaller pocket on the inside, which I'd been contemplating adding anyway. I think it'll be handy for lip gloss and keys. I also decided to stitch a line down the middle of one of the outer pockets to divide it (I saw several others participating in the challenge do this and thought it seemed like a good idea.).

I think the bag will be super handy for picnics and car trips. It's quite large and very sturdy, and the padded handles are a nice touch. Oh, that was the one other mishap. You're supposed to fold over than handles in the middle to create a flattened part that's a better grip surface, but my machine seriously rebelled when I tried to stitch through all those layers, so after I (barely) made it through one handle, I decided to pull out the stitches and not do the other one. I think they work fine without the grip.

I decided to do two rows of topstitching along the top edge, and this is where my bobbin decided to run out:

Drats!

And this one's just for fun:

Yes, that is my usual workday attire (I'm a freelance editor, and I work from home.).

Two down, 10 to go! (You can check out pictures from other challengers at the groups' Flikr pages here and here.)