Super Tote!!! (and a new-ish wallet)

I have a pattern crush on anything Anna makes. Seriously. I have purchased 4 of her patterns now and I have yet to be disappointed. Or confused. I hate when I buy a pattern but I can't figure out what the instructions are telling me what to do. She has the BEST instructions. Plus, she's super friendly so you don't feel weird asking a question if you have one. I frequently feel like a weirdo, so it's cool to change things up a bit.

You may be wondering who the heck Anna is. She is a pattern designer, blogger, sewist extraordinaire... and she can be found at Noodlehead! Her patterns are seriously great.You may remember the 241 tote I made last year that I wrote about here. (After looking for that post, I realized I never did take more photos of this bag! Ack!!! I'll have to remedy that!)

The other day I purchased her newly released Super Tote Pattern. I am notorious for carrying around a TON of stuff I don't actually need to take everywhere I go. But hey, just in case I might need it, right? This bag really lives up to it's name. It is super! Super HUGE!!! (I know there's a "that's what she said" in there somewhere...)

 Anyway, this is my finished Super Tote. Tada! The pattern calls for piping along the edge of the outside pocket, but it was 11:00 at night and piping sounded like a bad idea at the time. Instead, I just made a little binding for the top edge and called it good.

 I love the gussets on the sides of this bag. I was a little afraid to do it with linen because it tends to be pretty shifty. But Anna suggested using Pellon Shape Flex interfacing for this project. After getting that on the linen, I had no problem whatsoever.

 I was being lazy and just used velcro for the closure on the front pocket. I have plenty of magnetic snaps, but again, 11:00 at night...

 Here's another gusset shot. Love these! They make the whole bag come together.

 And my recessed zipper. I was a little afraid of this part (as I usually am when it's time to put in a zipper) but it really was easy.

 The pattern calls for elastic pockets on both sides, but I opted to just make one with elastic and the other pocket is just a regular pocket. I like a smaller, less deep pocket for all of my 126 tubes of lip balm (I mean, really? Why do I have such an obsession with lip balm?!). And my cell phone. You can see here what I mean about all the stuff. My planner, wallet, 84 pens (in the elastic pocket), earbuds, and 2 bibles... why 2? No idea. Sometimes I like the newer pretty pink one, and sometimes I like the old, worn, slightly beat up one.

After showing you my bag, I realized I never did a post on the Have It All Wallet I made. I love this wallet so much!!! This pattern was really easy to follow as well, and I purchased it from Straight Stitch Society. They have some other uber cute patterns as well.

I used my one single fat quarter that I own of Echino fabric. And it turned out upside down. I still love it though.

 Room for all my cards

 Checkbook, coupons, and loyalty/punch cards

And my money would go here if I had any. Sad face.

Pattern Review - and a Giveaway!!!

The lovely Trish Preston from Two Peas in a Pod Designs gave me the opportunity to review one of her adorable patterns. Her patterns are so darling and I love her designs, but had never tried one. I jumped on board with this one and was very excited to give it a try.

I got to choose my pattern, and honestly, I had some hesitation. I was going to play it safe and choose a pattern that did NOT involve zippers in any way, shape, or form. But in the end I chose a pattern that included not one, but TWO zippers!

This is the pattern that I chose. Cute huh?!

I was pleasantly surprised when I got the pattern in the mail. When I opened it up, it was full of full-color photos of her step-by-step process. It was like an online tutorial, but in paper form. Also included were full sized templates.

My original plan was to make this case using my beloved chicken fabric (I love it!!!). But once I trimmed the front pocket piece down and went to unzip the zipper halfway, it stuck a bit and I pulled too hard, so this happened:

I really wasn't thinking when I put the zipper in, and the instructions don't tell you to, but I highly recommend just doing a little straight stitch at both ends of the zipper so this doesn't happen to you! The ends of zipper are frayed (as you can see in the above photo) because I attempted - in vain - to save it by putting the zipper pull back on. I didn't work so I scrapped this project and started over.

In the end, this is the adorable bag that I ended up with. All the kids love it and they have each requested one of their own. I love this pattern and it makes such a cute bag. And the awesome thing is that it gives you instructions and templates for 3 different sizes.

I do have one small complaint about this pattern. Despite Trish and I e-mailing multiple times back and forth, I never was able to figure out the order I was supposed to layer my fabrics to get the linings and backing fabrics in the correct places. In the pattern, Trish used the same fabrics for the inner lining, and the front zipper pocket lining. I suppose if I had done that, I wouldn't have had this problem. But with the photos in her pattern, I couldn't tell which one was supposed to be the inner linings, and the lining for the front pocket. I kept feeling like I was missing a step somewhere, even though I wasn't. I still ended up with a super cute zip bag though, and when I make it again, I will just use the same fabrics for all the linings and the backing.

The white fabric was supposed to be my inside lining, and the backing fabric shown in the bottom photo was supposed to be the lining for the zipper pocket shown in the top photo.

Overall I am pleased with the finished product and I will definitely be using the pattern again to make a few more!

Now for the giveaway part!!! Trish has kindly offered to give one reader a surprise 2-pack of her patterns. Isn't that great?! She has so many wonderful designs, and one lucky person will win 2.

As much as I would love you to follow my blog, I'm not going to make that a condition for you to win (but you should still totally do it anyway, hehe.) All you have to do is visit Trish's website HERE then come back to this post and leave a comment telling me which of her patterns you would love to win. That's it! The winner will be chosen via random number generator on Wednesday, July 29th.

Good luck!