Child's Messenger Bag

I finished 2 projects today. The first one is the Child's Messenger Bag from One Yard Wonders, a collection of projects you can sew with only 1 yard of fabric. This is my favorite book right now!! I'm thinking most of my projects will be coming from this book, until I feel braver and more confident to move to bigger and better things!

This bag gave me trouble during the assembly portion. Making all the separate pieces was really pretty easy. I couldn't figure out the directions on how to put it all together, though, and there were no pictures to show me what to do! I reached out for help in many different ways and it finally came at the library. I took Liam to a program today and brought my bag with me. One of the other moms showed me exactly what to do! I was so excited!!

This picture is the bag before assembly:


The piece on the right is the lining which needed to go into the bag itself. Also, in this picture, the straps and front flap aren't sewn on, just pinned. The directions said something about turning it inside out, sewing the top and pulling it all through. Yeah...OK....

I put the lining in the bag, turned the tops in and top stitched around the entire thing, tucking in the flap and straps as I went. I'm very happy with all but one little spot, which hopefully nobody will ever notice...

Here's the front of the bag, closed:


Front of the bag, opened:


Inside of the bag with the pocket:


Thing I Learned:
*How to make tucked corners (Not sure that's what they're really called, but that's what I'm calling them).

*Basting.
*How to ask EVERYONE for help.
*Sometimes directions aren't correct.
*How to do something my own way, which could be much easier!!
*It really helps to press the seams as you go.
*My kids' craft table isn't a good ironing board.