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My friend, Lisa, has talent. She can bind books. My favorite book by PG Wodehouse, which was given to me by my grandmother, was falling to pieces. Lisa offered to rebind it for me. She also rebound my grandmother's World War II recipe book. This book was a test of her skills. It was full of mold, thanks to a flood during the 50s in my Dad's hometown. It has also been used. A lot. She literally had to reconstruct pages. When she brought these two books back, I wanted to give her something in return and she asked for a bag. She is a crafter too, and loves to play with paper (big surprise there). She wanted something she could hold all her accessories in as well as her paper, like calenders and other sheets. This is what I came up with.


The pattern was McCalls 5120. The fabric was from Sarah's Thimble in VA Beach.I saw it long before this and new that I wanted to make a bag for Lisa from. Luckily, she actually wanted a bag too.

The pattern called for many things that stretched my abilities. Before this, I had never even thought of sewing in zippers. This bag had 50 gazillion. Okay, fine. It had three, plus two separating zippers to hold it together.

I've never used bias tape before either. That wasn't as hard as the zippers. Except on the detachable pocket. The detachable pocket had zippers and bias tape. Goody.
Overall, the directions were pretty good. There were only a few times that I almost messed up but my mom was there and she helped me out. I can safely say that when I am working on a project and I start to feel tired, I should really, really put it down and just rest. I always try to get to a good stopping point and that never works.

Of course I had lots of help.

To be honest, I don't think that I would make anymore, although if I did, I would definitely change a few things. First I would make sure to line it so that the interfacing doesn't show. If you look at either large inside pocket, the interfacing is visible on the inside. I hate that, but I was told to follow the directions. I should have gone with my own instincts. The plus side of this, I still have some of the material in my stash. I thought I might try a sock bag.