An Addition to the Growing Family... of Burberry Bags

The "Go Green" Screen Bag - in Burberry

Tonight was another sewing class.  I arrived late (due to a small but important milestone at work - hooray for baby steps!) and found a seat in the back of the class. Before getting started I needed to purchase a black mesh screen to go with the Burberry fabric and black webbing that I wanted to use in the bag (in the picture above, the black in the middle is the mesh).  I liked the idea of having a third type of Burberry bag to add to my collection (though I never posted a picture of the first bag, I hinted about it here, and the second bag was shown here and here), and I was excited to find another use for the leftover fabric and webbing from the wedding.

During the class I used a rotary cutter for the first time.  It seemed like it would be easy to use, but I couldn't figure out how much pressure to apply, at what angle to hold the cutter, and which side should be next to the fabric.  I started using it like a pizza cutter, going back and forth over the mesh in order to cut all the way through, and I got in trouble for cutting towards me.  It turns out it's a lot sharper than the vaguely similar kitchen utensil.  I got the hang of it (once I learned the trick of using a ruler to guide the cutter), but I still prefer my scissors.

I also sewed a french seam for the first time.  And, just like the rotary cutter, I did not have beginner's luck.  For a french seam, you sew the back sides together, and then you flip the seam inside out and sew the front sides together.  If you can visualize it, the seam is ultimately inside with no raw exposed edges (important if you're dealing with something abrasive like the mesh).  Unfortunately, I did not sew my second seam large enough, and I ended having the raw edges of the fabric sticking out of the middle of the seam when the bag was turned right side out.  The solution was easy - just sew the second (front sides together) seam again, this time a little bigger.  But, the whole process caused me to fall behind and led to me being one of the last people in the class to finish the bag.

Overall, I am very pleased with the bag (even though a Burberry mesh bag seems a bit of an oxymoron), and the bag has already been purposed as my sewing class bag.