Hooking up with an old friend

I was able to meet up with my sewing machine yesterday - we used to spend so much time together making countless quilted wallhanging, soft sculptures, bags, folky things...so I have missed her. In the past several years I've merely dusted her off to make a necessary mend or an occasional Halloween costume, our friendship has been replaced with knitting, a more portable, mommy friendly type craft. So yesterday I went off to the LQS in search of some coordinating bits for the tiered skirt found here, instead I was beckoned by a siren - some fabrics that said "Chelsea Bag" - I have had this Amy Butler pattern for a few weeks now and have been working my way towards getting the notions together, but that fabric simply said "now". And so it was. (I have adult ADD, really I do...so these tangents seem a bit hard to avoid, it's like trying to stop a speeding train..."Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea!")

SO I brought my goodies home and rushed down to my machine - "look, honey I've brought us some fabric!" Usually we just pick up where we left off, happily whirring our way to somewhere - yesterday sewing was not quite like riding a bike...more like a freaking 3 legged horse. Good grief, I thought, "this is a bag" - this is not rocket science - so I was harried as usual and stumbled on these damn handle openings. No other bloggers were bitching about this plight so I was alone. I could not, cannot figure out how to make them neater - I was unable to pull the fabric back and topstitch it into place without bits of frayed raw edge peeking out. I used some stiff sew-in interfacing, my first choice would have been fusible but the LQS had none, apparently sew-in vs. fusible may have been the turning point. Perhaps the stuff the pattern called for in "option 1" would have had more give which may have made it easier to pull the fabric to the inside? Well, in any case from far away (FROM-FAR-AWAY) my bag is cute. The fabric was right, it is right for this bag. But I am saddened by the crappy looking handles, so my Type A self will likely stuff it in the back of my closet.

But I am also stubborn, I think I will try this pattern again, but I will prevail - that's a challenge Chelsea - I'm going to win! It's not whether you win or lose, it's whether you win dammit!