This month's challenge is my favorite non-quilt challenge--a By Annie bag! Each Island Batik ambassador gets to pick out one of By Annie's fantastically thorough bag patterns and then chose fabric from one of the newest Island Batik fabric collections.
I struggled terribly making bags until my first By Annie/Island collaboration challenge in 2020. Annie's patterns activate a switch in my brain that other bag patterns never have. I have made many and have a to-make list that grows every time she releases new patterns.
I chose the Sidekick pattern. Annie designed Siddekick after an overwhelming number of requests for a bag to go on a walker. Sidekick can also be used on camp chairs, captain-style seats in a car, or really any chair with arms. I'll use Sidekick on the camp chair during my son's YMCA soccer games, though I do like the idea of having one ready to go should I ever unexpectedly need a walker for any reason. That's happened to 2 healthy friends of mine recently, so you never know. Sidekick has a variety of pockets on the inside and outside and was really thoughtfully designed.
By Annie provided a kit containing all the materials needed for the bag, including zippers, hardware, hook & loop tape (Velcro), mesh, fold over elastic, and interfacing. Additional supplies used in this bag were provided to me by Lumin Fabrics/Island Batik, Aurifil, Schmetz, and Oliso.
Sidekick calls for three different fabrics. Annie films multiple videos about each of her patterns and for her Closer Look videos, she shows both where all the fabrics end up, and versions that use more and fewer fabrics than called for. She showed a Sidekick model that used 4 fabrics that I really liked, using one main fabric for the big pocket and a second main fabric for the main body, so I asked for 4 fabrics from Island Batik/Lumin. I chose 4 gorgeous fabrics from the Berry Crush collection. Berry Crush is a signature collection designed by Jerry Khiev for my friend Jennifer Thomas of Curlicue Creations.
Annie's patterns have a lot of steps but it's the thoroughness that I like about them. The first step is to quilt your main and lining fabrics to the Soft and Stable. I use Elmer's disappearing purple glue sticks to secure my fabric before the quilting. I chose crosshatch quilting with Aurifil thread.
Once your fabric is quilted and cut down, the next step is to make all your bag components. Annie recommends a topstitch needle for her bags, so I always use a Schmetz 90/14 topstitch needle for my By Annie bags, and this Sidekick was no exception.
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| Pockets! |
After all the components have been made, it's time to assemble the whole bag. I love seeing it all come together! I'm really happy with my Sidekick!
We had to choose our bag pattern and fabrics in May. What I didn't know then is that Jennifer would ask me to participate in the blog hop for Berry Crush. So in addition to the four gorgeous fabrics in my Sidekick, I got to play with almost all of the collection! The Berry Crush blog hop starts tomorrow, October 20th, and come back on Wednesday October 22nd for my project with these amazing fabrics.
