Supernatural Purse of DOOM

Sometimes I take on a project that I think will be 'simple' and then I come to regret saying yes. Fortunately this one redeemed itself and by the end I did love it, but the middle section was a bit rough...and it did earn the name of the Purse of DOOM, which stuck since I made up the pattern and get to name it whatever I want.

I would drink this whiskey...

The fabric for this bag are from several different groups: Sky Love Creations (panel), Moon Beam Textiles, Knitorious, and Kimmy Snabric (I think? Can't remember where I got all my stash from anymore since it's grown like a weed...)

Back with lots of fun fabric!

My customer sent a well loved (aka falling apart at the seams, literally) hobo style bag and asked if I could duplicate it, but with my awesome Supernatural fabrics.  Hobo bag, no problem! Wait, it's made up of patchwork pieces? Hmm, I've done a quilt before, sewing pieces together to make a bigger piece isn't a big deal.  But the original bag was a thick woven fabric, and we're doing quilting cotton...and you plan on carrying as much as you can shove in there? Hmm, actual quilting should help with that, but it needed to be EXTRA awesome, so she designed an embroidered quilting pattern to use.  If you haven't checked out String Theory Fabric Art, you really should! This pattern isn't available yet, but with enough begging, it might finally get released!

Tried to get a standing comparison pic with the original bag..yeah, that one doesn't stand LOL

Laying comparison, trust me, it's essentially the same bag.  Or at least a fraternal twin.

Oh, and this order came with a 'no rush, I know it will take some time and I can wait.' which is never a good thing to tell me. If I can squeeze in 'just one more project' before I tackle something difficult, I usually will!  

sewing step 1, making the fabric from the squares

The first challenge was trying to pick a size for the squares.  Measuring the bag gave me a goal for finished size, but measuring each square gave different numbers thanks to uneven stretching of the fabric.  I finally gave up and picked a nice even number so I could add on seam allowances easily. After I settled on the size, it was a matter of cutting the pieces, and arranging them so that they would form a nice pattern. Fortunately the front piece is a panel from Sky Love Creations, so that saved me a LOT of time, at least for that side.

Back piece

Since I didn't want to try to wiggle the finished bag under my embroidery machine, I made each piece bigger than I needed it, and then quilted it before cutting my pattern.  I decided to use fusible fleece as my padding layer and that seemed to work nicely. 

First line of embroidery!

Moving right along....

first hoop done, that wasn't so bad...

My largest embroidery hoop is 8"x12", but for some reason I thought it was 7"x11"...so that's the size I asked for the quilting.  There are actually 2 separate patterns to the design so that it alternates the wings and star and can be joined up! (or maybe more, I've kind of blocked that part of the project...)

at this stage I might have started to regret my life choices

I decided to actually attach the straps and sides about halfway through the quilting, so I could line the quilt pattern up on the side/strap piece...I can't remember exactly how many hoops it took to quilt everything, but it was a LOT.

Back of the fabric, showing off the awesome pattern!

The original bag was super slouchy, but between the fleece and the cut-away interfacing, this one now has some structure! After several washes it should soften up nicely, but I was pretty impressed by how stiff it became.

Outside all together!!

 After I recovered from the outside (which took many days - both for the sewing and the recovery), it was time to do the 'simple' lining.  A fun black and grey flannel print was the perfect coordinate!

The inside has a zipper pocket, with a fun pop of green.

It's a huge and roomy bag...

A top zipper can secure everything inside, or if you want to do a fast closure, there is also an awesome engraved snap! The sigil zipper pull is from Wizardry, Stitchery, and Crafts

Zipper is recessed and good for holding smaller things inside

Snap pinches it shut and can hold more!

We need to beg for more of these zipper pulls to come back in stock.

Snaps came from Kimmy Snabric, and they are awesome!

I think this bag just needs some glamour shots, but it only has me as the photographer, so that's not going to happen...but if pictures showed up with it in front of a certain car...I'd definitely have to change the cover photo for this post!

long strap, but the embroidery isn't really obvious...

A little closer...

TOO CLOSE! j/k, it's perfect. Look at that awesome fabric with the embroidery...

Yes, it IS an alpaca.

This bag might someday be duplicated, or at least replicated, but not until after I've forgotten just how much work it was! Totally awesome in the end, but super time intensive!

Ok, the strap might be a bit stiff...it's going to get slouchy, probably...