I got your back!

So did you sign up for the Canadian Quilter's Association Mini Swap??  It's going to be so much fun!! Hey - quilting is our hobby - we'd better be having fun with it or we need to find a new hobby. How many quilts can you make for you or your family?? This is something new and you get to make a new friend. I hope you signed up!!! 

I know that Nine did as she sent me an e-mail. Good morning Nina!!  She also sent me a link to her blog where she sewed the same backpack (well - the slightly larger one). She made some changes - we did not, but the next time we will.

Yesterday was a wild day! Ronda and I were determined to get our backpacks DONE. There will be no (or little) creating new UFOs when there is so much that needs to be finished already. She arrived bright and early and we set up the sewing machines. She was sewing on the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC and I was sewing on the PFAFF creative icon. This will become important in a minute.

As usual, there were lots of learning moments and I'll share a couple of them with you. I'll also say that it's a good thing we weren't live streaming our sessions because there were a few times when - let's just say the air was blue! And it wasn't from cigarette smoke!

When we had gotten together the last time (you can read about it here), we managed to get all the pieces prepped. Oh - we had high hopes to make the backpacks in one day! HA - what foolish girls we were to think that!

So the appropriate color threads got loaded onto the sewing machines and we were off. We pinned the pattern to that stack of quilts (which are still waiting to be trimmed) and started to make the backpack back. Ronda did NOT put straps on her back - only the carry handle at the very top and she did NOT put any inside pockets in hers either!

This part of the bag went together fairly easily - it's the back of the backpack with a handle, shoulder straps (and the tabs for the straps at the bottom) as well as an outside zippered pocket.

The backpack back

You'll notice that the backpack is no longer a rectangle but has been shaped. That was an interesting task, but we made out just fine. There is a slip pocket on the other side.

Then we moved onto the front. A little finagling and we managed to get the fronts made as well. We also had to shape the backpack front and that was a task cutting it with the rotary cutter. Next time - we'd better put in a new blade. That's a LOT of layers to cut through. Just wait until we get to the sewing part!  I also would change the position of the magnetic snap on that flap.

Many, many layers!

There they are - the front and the back!! Shoot - I should have taken pictures of the insides with their many pockets as you can't really see them once the backpack is assembled. 

The front and the back of the backpack

Next up was making the gusset. This included another zipper. Oh no - I remember the zipper experience from last time. I couldn't get the zipper slide on the zipper tape if my life depended on it. Thank goodness Ronda was here and helped me out.

We learned two things yesterday about zippers. If you have a buddy, then one person can get the zipper slide on the zipper tape and the other person pulls the zipper slide to make the zipper. 

One way to add the zipper slide

But if you happen to be alone, it's a pain in the butt. So I gently put the zipper slide onto the zipper tape. Then I VERY CAREFULLY pinned it to the ironing board. 

The zipper tape is pinned to the ironing board

Then VERY SECURELY hold both sides of the zipper tape with one hand and gently pull the zipper slide with the other. This was FAST, FAST, FAST.  I'm not afraid to make my own zippers in the future. Notice how the ends are perfectly lined up? I find that if I do it in my hands that one side is off. No more wonky zippers!!!!

A perfect end to the zipper

I shall not tell you what happened to Ronda's zipper but we had to redo her zipper slide. Let's just say that there are NO STOPPERS on either end of the zipper. Ooops!!!!  In fact, we made a two-way sliding zipper so the zippers meet in the middle of the backpack rather than start at one side. Oh yes - we're good!!!

Another great end to the zipper

Once that gusset was made and that involved more trimming and the insertion of the zipper, it was time to do the final assembly. We started by sewing the gusset to the backpack back. The seams were finished with bias binding. I thought it was going to look terrible, but it actually looks pretty neat. I didn't get any pictures of it. Why? Too focused on getting those seams done. I did have to redo the bottom two corners when I sewed the last part of the bias binding down as it didn't sit right. And if Shelly happens to look inside - well, we wanted our bags to be Shelly worthy. You see, Shelly is a bag maker extraordinaire and we're trying to get into her league! I think we did a pretty good job yesterday!

The gusset is sewn to the back

Then came the final seams. Sewing the gusset to the front. This is where the air turned blue pretty quickly. That was a challenging seam to sew, although I noticed that Ronda was not having the same issues as I was. Perhaps, she's just not as vocal. But I had extra layers with pockets and straps and it was "fun".

Not only were we going through many, many layers of foam and binding and fabrics, but the curves were tight and the backpack is stiff. But not so stiff that we couldn't manipulate it. My arms were getting tired as I manhandled that bag.

Challenging curves to sew

Trying to get that last binding seam around the curves. 

One last challenge around the curves

Now here's the thing. Ronda sewed on the Husqvarna Viking Designer EPIC and I sewed on the PFAFF creative icon. Those are both top of the line sewing machines with HUGE penetration power (they both can sew through 14 layers of heavy denim or basically whatever thickness you can actually put under the foot). They both have significantly more space between the bed of the machine and the head of the sewing machine - it's about 3 - 4 inches than a traditional sewing machine.

Since I had more straps and pockets and therefore more layers, the PFAFF creative icon at times, said - "you have too much fabric under the needle". But I talked gently to it and it agreed to continue sewing with no skipped stitches. How could one ever sew this on a traditional sewing machine? I've no idea. I'm sure that people do, but those last parts were a challenge. I wonder what kind of sewing machines they use at byAnnie.com???  They must use industrial machines?

Anyway - I think the thread broke only once or twice for each of us which is amazing and that's thanks to these high-end machines. We didn't even use topstitch needles which we should have done for the assembly part. And there were NO broken needles. And once or twice the extra penetration power kicked in on the PFAFF creative icon and scared me to death with the noise!

Bottom line - we are done!!!!! The excitement was building as we approached the finish line. I guess you can tell which one belongs to me and which one belongs to Ronda.

Backpacks are DONE

The front of my backpack.

The front of the backpack

Here's the back of my backpack.

The back of the backpack

Here's Ronda's.

The front of Ronda's backpack

It was an awesome day! I highly recommend that if you've got a challenging project to make and you know someone who wants to make the same thing - do it together. There are a couple of spots where I would have taken a break, but because we egged each other on - we kept going and there is NO UFO.

I should mention that the pattern we used is from byAnnie.com. It's called Back at Ya. Now we used the original version of the pattern which was released in 2014. I believe there was another version released in 2018 (called Back at Ya 2.0) and this latest release is Back at Ya 2.1. I wonder how many of the issues we had have been revolved in the subsequent releases. Personally, I think that anyone who bought the original Back at Ya should get the Back at Ya 2.1. I shouldn't have to buy a new pattern just because the original was badly written. I'll be sending some pictures and thoughts. Here's a video so you can see some of the insides of the bag.   And if you check out this video - you get to see the other versions of the pattern. 

I'm super excited and I pulled out my yoga bag (also byAnnie.com pattern) so I could start on that. However, I have a ton of admin stuff to get done today and hopefully work on another sample because I hit the road tomorrow for meetings and training for a week. It's all about sewing and serging so it's going to be fun and to spend the week immersed in new stuff that coming down the pipeline of which I cannot breathe a word - you'll have to wait!!! 

This is my FIRST FINISH of 2020. There's going to be a whole lot more as well. I'm pumped, I'm committed to myself and I will make this happen.

As for my virtual challenge? We had sat around Studio B for most of the day so I was about 7,500 steps at dinner time. That's not good enough - I need to hit 10,000 steps for the day or I'm going to be behind the pace for the challenge. I took the girls out for a walk last night - they were thrilled. The weather was gorgeous. I see from the stats this morning - that I'm .9 of a mile behind the pace. No big deal. I could make that up today. It's going to be a challenge next week sitting in the meeting room, but last year, I went for a long walk in the morning and I see the weather is going to be good so I plan on doing that again!!!

On that note, I'm out of here!!!

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!