The Island Batik Ambassadors always look forward to the challenge with By Annie. We love her bag patterns. We get to choose the fabrics we like and the bag pattern that we want to make. What fun! This is week 3 for the It's In The Bag! Blog Hop. I hope you've been following along and seeing what all the Ambassadors are making.
This year I let my husband decide what bag I should make. He decided on the In Control pattern. This is a sturdy caddy with lots of pockets and dividers. I let him choose the Island Batik fabrics too, and he picked out three colors from the new Summer 2023 Red. White and Blooms Collection. He will use it to hold miscellaneous things by the sofa where he sits.
The Red, White and Blooms collection is lovely.
By Annie sends all the materials needed to make the project. For this project they sent the pattern, Soft and Stable, 2 sets of metal Nickel rings, single slide handbag zipper, webbing and Fusible Interfacing. Island Batik sent the fabrics. It's a project bundle all ready to go!
You can also see the three fabrics my husband picked for the bag.
When we got the box with everything in July- it was hard to wait until November to make it! In fact I couldn't wait! I had some free time and made my little bag early.
Last year I made the bag called Catch All Caddy. In Control is almost the same as Catch All Caddy, only a little smaller. My husband liked the smaller bag for his needs. I can see using this smaller size bag for many things.
By Annie's patterns are very good. They go carefully step by step and also most patterns have a free Add - On Video included which help if you are more of a visual learner. I find them very helpful.
Here is a photo of all my pieces cut with a label for each piece. You might think it tedious to label every piece, but it does save a lot of confusion when putting it all together.
Here's a photo of sewing the straps together. They go together easily and are very attractive. I used
Schmetz needles and red and dark blue
Aurifil thread for sewing. They all work well with the fabrics, interfacing and sewing thru the webbing.
This photo shows sewing the side panels. You do the quilting in an earlier step, then cut the pieces to size. I took the time to quilt stars all over, but you can't see them well in regular light.
Here the handles and inner dividers are finished and ready for the bag assembly. All at once it seems like the bag is coming together.
Here I'm putting the handles on a side panel. I've chalked the area where I'll be sewing an X to help secure the handle to the side panel. Little clips are helpful instead of trying to pin thru thickness.
And it's done! Here is a view from the top so you can see the inner dividers. These pockets expand to you can hold a wide variety of things. There is a pocket and a zipper on the outside of the side panels that you can't see from this angle. You can see the zipper on the cover of the pattern.
Here the bag is on it's side so you can see the handles and outside pockets below where each handle is attached.
I have one confession to make. In all the By Annie patterns I've made, I've sewn the outside bindings on by machine and then hand sewn the bindings to the other side. I really struggle trying to get the bindings totally sewn by machine. I don't know if it's something with my machine, or just me, but it's not worth the struggle for me and I don't mind doing the hand work.
I love this little tote! It is one of the easier
By Annie Patterns.
Here is a photo of my Catch All Caddy and the In Control Caddy. You can see that the Catch All caddy is a bigger. I may just have to make a little In Control caddy for myself!
I have to include one more photo of the In Control caddy with some of the stuff my husband could put in it. It can hold hold a lot more things.
I think you would enjoy making one of By Annie's bag//tote patterns. Check out her website and all the great patterns she has.
Be sure and go to
Island Batik's blog and enter for this weeks drawing of two beautiful fat quarter bundles - Red, White and Blooms and Vintage Charm by Kathy Engle.
