What's in Your Bag Island Batik Challenge

 

The October Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is called What's in Your Bag!  

This month our ByAnnie.com is the sponsor and provided all the Ambassadors the supplies needed to make a bag of our choice.  This year I let my daughter pick the bag and she selected the pattern Hang in There.

This pattern is for a beside/sofa pocket organizer.  It comes in two sizes and I decided to make both of them.  Island Batik also let us select what fabrics we wanted and I picked four lovely fabrics from the collection called Poetic Bouquet.

I've made several By Annie bags and this is the easiest one so far.  This organizer requires no quilting, no zippers and no binding!  Wow!  That really simplifies things!

As in all By Annie patterns the instructions are very clear.  All pieces are labeled and there are step by step instructions as well as an online video for extra help.  With the darker fabrics I selected, By Annie sent me their Soft and Stable in black.  That is the first time I've used the black and it worked really well.

I tried to take a few photos of some of the steps. Below you can see the fusible interfacing has been fused to the fabric pockets on the small bag and the large bag.  The labels keep things organized.

It was interesting that the smaller bag was taller and less wide.  The larger bag was wider and not as tall.

Here the small organizer is almost finished.  Need to top stitch around the pockets.  Clips work really well to hold all the layers.  I love the mesh for the pockets and the fold over elastic for the mesh.  It is VERY easy to sew and makes great pockets.

Small organizer finished.  You can see the flap at the top that will go under the mattress.  Size is 15 1/2" H x 12 1/2" W.

Here is the large organizer finished.  It was a lot larger than I expected - 13" H x 23 1/2" W

There are a lot of pockets!  This could be very handy - especially if you are someone who likes to read in bed, or have remotes or phones you want to keep accessible.

Here are photos I took once the organizers were finished.  I will tell you my surprise after the photos- see if you notice anything in the pictures.

I never once considered the measurements of these organizers.  My bad!  These do NOT fit on our bed!  They are made for beds that have a mattress AND a box spring under it.  We have a mattress on top of drawers and it sits lower to the floor.  In the photos above I have the organizer laying on top of the mattress just to get a photo.

Oh well!  These were made for a gift, so now I just need to make sure they will fit on their bed - ha!  Lesson learned!

I also used Schmetz needles and they work great sewing thru all the layers.

Thanks to Island Batik, By Annie and Schmetz for supplying products to use in this project.