Penny Inn Sew Along Week 2!

It's finally time to start sewing!  If you are still cutting out the pieces (like me!) don't worry, it's all going to come together like a miracle at the end and we still have the second half of the sew along to play catch up!

Dug out the pictures of the other flap I made....

For the first part of this week, we are doing steps 4-7.  If you are not doing any straps, you can skip steps 5 and 6 and be that much closer to finished!  ;)  If' you haven't done it yet, cut out the fabric and fuse the interfacing as directed in the instructions.  You shouldn't have the decovil fused yet, or the interfacing for card pockets A and B.

Step 4 - Tab Closure 

For this step, make sure you follow your seam allowance and take your time on the curves so it looks nice and even!  If you find you have trouble with this, go ahead and draw a line on the wrong side of your fabric to help guide your sewing!  I absolutely love my frixxon pen for this, and since it's on the backside of the fabric, I don't have to worry about it every coming back in cold weather!

Step 5 - Adjustable Strap

Check out Christine's instructions HERE for a guide on making adjustable straps!

Step 6 - Wrist Strap

Pretty self explanatory in the pattern, but if you get stuck, we are here to help you out!  The sew along group should be getting more active as we all get further into the pattern!

Step 7 - Making the flap

This is going to be the first part that really needs some attention to detail if you want it to look awesome!  The double stick tape that is mention in the pattern is amazing stuff, but if you don't have it, I'd suggest either a glue stick (be careful to only get it in the seam allowance) or maybe some other type of temporary adhesive that will not gum up your sewing machine.  It can be done without, but pinning through the Decovil and other thick stabilizers is part of the reason my needles are not straight anymore.  (sewing 'over' them is also part of the reason my needles aren't straight...)

Even the ones that look mostly straight really aren't...and I toss the really bad ones into a pill bottle!

If you don't have Decovil, there are a few options you can use, but they will give slightly different results.  I will be using Stiff Stuff, which is not fusible, but a shot of quilting basting spray will hold it in place, or some steam a seam will also make it fusible.  Using the Pellon stiff interfacing (71F) will also work, but it does seem to wrinkle a bit more and get odd creases.  I've never tried the Decovil, so I don't really know which is the closest to it.  Hopefully whatever you pick is not too thick for your sewing machine to stitch through at the end because there are going to be a lot of layers in some spots!  The interfacing needs to be stiff enough to give the flap good structure, hold its' shape over repeated use, not get weird creases if it is bent, and still be thin enough to sew through.  If you have a very sturdy machine, foam might work, but I have a feeling it would be too puffy to fit into the flap nicely.

I'm almost caught up on my orders, so I'm going to finally be able to post my in progress pics soon!!

Try to get as far as you can, hopefully Thursday I'll be able to get the next few steps going and we can knock out the exterior this week!