A weekender kind of weekend {take two}

This weekend we've had unseasonably warm temperatures, which gave me a chance to get outside and snap some pictures of my completed scrappy weekender!  It's definitely depressing knowing that outside photo shoots will have to be reserved for weekends now, as the sun has set by the time I'm home from work.  

Anyways, without further ado, may I present Mr. Scrappy Weekender!  No disrespect to my first weekender, but this one is my favorite.  Like favorite favorite, hands down favorite bag I've ever made, and can even compete with my favorite quilts I've made.  Come to think of it, I guess it is the perfect marriage between a quilt and a bag.

It also helps that because I used the quilt as you go method Elizabeth described in her post here, the only thing I had to buy to make this bag was the zipper and cording for the piping!  I had a bunch of left over canvas on hand from some tote bags I made awhile back, and fabric and batting scraps are certainly not hard to come by down in my sewing room.  Not that my first weekender wasn't worth it, but it became quite costly, after you buy 17 million yards of interfacing and all the fabric.

For the main panels, I dug through my blue, green, grey and yellow scrap bins for piecing, and used Essex Linen in Grey for the piping and handles.

I followed the pattern for the most part, but did make a few modifications that I picked up the last time.  First was to widen and lengthen the handles.  I added about 8" of length to each handle, which is the perfect "throw over your shoulder" handle length.  Last time I didn't widen the handles, but as this bag really can hold a lot and get quite heavy, I thought wider handles would make toting this bad boy around a little more comfortable.  To do this, I cut my handle width to 5" and then followed the instructions for construction as described in the pattern.  I also sewed my handles on a little differently, for a little more security, I actually sewed up each side of the handle to attach the entire handle to the bag, instead of just at 2 or 3 spots like the instructions describe.  Again, I think this will help with wear and tear over time.



I also tricked Mr. Scrappy out with lots and lots of inside pockets.  I added one zipper pocket using this tutorial on the inside lining of one of the outer pockets, which will be great for securing travel documents for easy access when traveling.



And one large zipper pocket on one of the inside lining panels, and then constructed a separated pocket on the other side of the lining panel.  As for the lining, I've had this grey and white houndstooth fabric from Joann's in my stash for forever, and thought this would be a perfect use!  I did use some Pellon Shapeflex iron on interfacing for the lining, as I wanted to be sure the cotton quilting weight fabric could hold up with all the pockets.



As far as construction goes, my only two real alterations were using stitch witchery to make the bias piping, and then machine stitching in my lining.  It's no secret I'm not a fan of hand sewing binding, so hand stitching in the lining to this big guy?  No thanks.  I did this on my first weekender, and it turned great, so I did it with this one as well.  I pinned my lining in place, and then machine stitched a line about 1/4" inch outside of the line of stitching which secures the zipper in place.  Especially with this scrappy stitchy version, I don' think it takes anything away from the finished look of the bag, and took a fraction of the time.



For now Mr. Scrappy is hanging out on the floor in our bedroom so I can admire him any chance I can, I keep not so subtly hinting to the hubs that we now have to take a trip somewhere so I can take him out for a test drive!