slightly unravelled

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Sophia

Amy Butler Sophia Carry-All



I completed the Amy Butler Sophia Carry-All. I think it's very cool, but it was a little frustrating to make, largely because of:
  1. The many layers of fabric / interfacing / fleece that were hard to sew through;
  2. The combo of the piping and the rounded shape: either one would have been fine on it's own, but trying to sew the piping on while keeping the curve even is very hard; and
  3. Attaching the bottom to the sides -- three walls and piping all meeting together is just asking for bad things to happen.
There really are a lot of flaws on my bag, most of which you have to inspect closely to see, so they aren't showing up in the photos. It was fun to make, and I am enjoying a feeling of accomplishment. Although it's imperfect in many respects, I'm happy with the results.

About the pattern:

Overall I think the pattern was written pretty well and gave good details and accompanying diagrams. However, I was very disappointed to find a couple of errors in the pattern. When I paid $12 for the pattern (a substantial price, I think), I was paying for the creativity of the designer and the expertise of the pattern writer. The errors in the pattern should have been caught by careful proof-reading, and I think the pattern producer had an obligation to do that. I noticed the errors on my first read-through.

I did email the Amy Butler company about the errors, and they were responsive and sent me several free patterns (which I think was the right thing to do). They have posted a correction of the most substantial error on their website -- BUT, the correction is not the right one, or at least not the most practical way to correct the error.*

Anyway, like I said, I like my bag a lot (although....not as much as I like this version). I'm looking forward to using it in Spring / Summer, although I am kind of regretting choosing white fabric...it's going to be hard to remember never to set the bag down on the floor. I added a bit of the exterior fabric to the inside as a trim at the top of the pockets to make the inside more interesting. I love the fact that it has 4 pockets -- those will be very useful!

Amy Butler Sophia Carry-All

Amy Butler Sophia Carry-All



*The error in the pattern is that it calls for 1/8 yard of timtex ( 1/8 yd = 4.5 inches), then expects you to cut the bottom panel out, which is 5.5 inches wide. The correction on the Amy Butler website says to get 1/4 yard of timtex instead. You don't actually need 1/4 yard -- 1/8 yard is enough. Since the 5.5 inch bottom panel includes 1 inch of seam allowance, you can subtract a little more than an inch from the width (and length) of the bottom panel timtex piece, so the 1/8 yard is wide enough.

2 Comments:

  • Well, despite the issue, I think the bag looks fantastic! Roll on spring.

    By Blogger schrodinger, at 3/15/2008 9:35 PM  

  • I was just researching this bag, I am thinking about making it. I had similar problems with the thick layers when I made an Amy Butler baby bag. Despite your problems, the bag looks fantastic!

    By Blogger Ali, at 8/30/2009 3:46 PM  

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