It’s Friday and I’m bagged. Week 28. Good things come in three’s.

Author: Jacqueline

Grab a coffee or tea and join us each Friday, to learn how these Soak worthy bags came to be. Are you bagged? Send us your favorite bag. If we feature it here, we’ll send you a Soak gift pack, in a pretty bag, of course!

Today we’re celebrating the number 3. Three years at our new office, Chris’s third anniversary with the company and the third bag, I have yet to make. After bag one and two, I know exactly what I’d like; I just have to find the time to make it.e love our office; we can’t believe it has been three years since we moved in. Three years of forklift payments, three years of the ice cream truck, and three years to settle into this lovely space. I guess it’s not our ‘new office’ anymore. Either way, if you are in the neighborhood, do stop by for a visit.

Chris’s third anniversary with Soak is also this week. To celebrate, I made her a lovely bag. I started with an assortment of my favorite fabrics, some from Quilt Market, some from the Workroom all ones I knew she’d love. I included the supplementary pocket detail from my first bag as well.

I also added a bit of extra detail into this bag. For structure, Karyn from the Workroom suggests using canvas as an alternative to interfacing. It gives structure, without stiffness. Don’t forget to Soak and dry it first, as canvas does shrink considerably.

I wanted a detail that would reflect Chris’s three years. I worked on a few ideas for quilting into the outside of the bag and in the end, settled for a more subtle approach. I inserted three contrasting orange panels into one of the straps. Between you and I couldn’t get the full length of the strap from the fat quarter of fabric I had chosen, so integrating the contrasting panels into the handles helped with fabric yield and pattern continuity. 

Before assembling the bag, I worked my free motion machine embroidery magic to write on the bag. Truth be told, at a recent Quilt Sunday I played with one of the fancy Bernina machines that controls the stitch length while doing free motion and I fell hard and fast. For now, I get to stick to my current machine, controlling stitch length by hand. I am getting pretty good at it.

For my third bag to be, I’m going to focus on something a bit bigger, to fit in more work stuff while on the go. I’m also going to add more canvas structure to the interior of the bag, making it easier to distinguish one pocket from the other. I’m going to play with the machine embroidery a bit more; I love the subtlety of the texture and how the thread overlaps the various colours. As with everything here at Soak, it’s all in the details.

Update:

One of our wonderful readers, Amber, sent us a short email with a photo of a similar bag that she has made. We thought it was beautiful and wanted to share it with everyone.

“I love your bag.  Especially the one with the summery bird fabric!  I made this bag as well.  I really like how it turned out.  I did use canvas between the layers, but wish I would have thought to divide the pockets up more.  Really nice free stitching as well.  I’ve yet to try that with my Bernina.  Keep up the great stitching!
Amber”