The Emmaline Retreat Bag

Although I sewed together a drawstring bag first, I consider this my first “real” sewing project. I made quite a few mistakes, and I am including them in the photos, but I learned a lot and got a cool new sewing bag out of it. Overall, this was a very fun and enjoyable project. I’d like to make the larger version of this bag in the future.

Read the full story on my sewing blog!

The finished Retreat Bag.

Another photo of the finished retreat bag.

I love how much stuff I can fit in this bag. The two inside pockets are a very nice addition by the bag designer.

This is an example of one of my mistakes. while sewing the project together, I ended up cutting the zipper fabric to make the tabs fit and made the fabric too narrow to sew properly.

Top view. You can sort of see the repairs I had to make to the zipper seam here.

Here is a close-up of some of the hand-sewing I had to do to repair the zipper seam. It did not attach properly because it was too narrow. Also notice how this affected the wire casing. It was difficult to guide off of the zipper in this state.

This is the other side of the zipper seam. Notice how it has the same issues. It looks like some damage is becoming more apparent. I'll have to repair this when I get the chance.

Celtic-Inspired Cables

Experimental Knitting