The giant vinyl bag! (Part 1)

I decided that I would start carrying a knitting project to work with me all the time a long time ago.  Unfortunately, I picked a purse that would only carry about 1 project.  It would have been ok, but that project always ended up being a sock or something small.  I decided I needed to make a bag that was big enough that I could actually throw an entirely different project bag into... you know, to be able to switch them out... and it would also have to hold all my normal purse stuff too.  My current purse was already the size of a small tote bag, so I had to thing really really big.
A while back, I had ordered some glitter vinyl to make a purse, so I decided my meganormous tote bag would be made from that.


A sea of glitter vinyl.  (or maybe just a yard)

Luckily, the glitter vinyl I ordered from Joann.com is the upholstery type of vinyl.  It is bonded to a cloth backing and its pretty hardy stuff.  I had read it was best to use a leather needle because it leaves a smaller hole and it can stand up to punching through the vinyl, but as I was leaving Hancock Fabric, the cashier girl told me not to use them on vinyl because they could leave a hole.  This reminded me how important it would be to take some scrap bits and sew them all together.


Testing tension, got some loop-de-loops.

I used some extra strong upholstery nylon to sew the vinyl.  I think my machine liked it less than the vinyl.  It kept getting jammed in the hook and then I had to take apart the whole hook assembly and oil it.  That made it a bit better but I kept getting those loops and I had to crank the tension up to 7.  I had the stitch length set really wide too because it would leave fewer holes in the vinyl.


Bits o' vinyl.

I decided to use two side pieces and one long piece for the bottom and skinny sides together.  For me, the fewer the seams, the better.  I left a good 1/2 inch seam allowance on them all.  It should actually provide a bit of structure in the finished bag, i hope.


The first seams.

I cut the long piece extra long, so I could cut the sides to an even length at the end.  This mean I had to find the center of the pieces and line them all up.  Amazingly, this worked pretty well.


All the vinyl seams sewn.

On the last two seams, of course, I met with a few problems.  First, the machine decided to jam to the point where I had to remove the bobbin, the hook, and the presser foot before I could get the needle out of the fabric and loose.  Not sure what happened but it seemed to work a bit better after I replaced the hook this time.  Perhaps I had it off the first time and was just getting lucky up until then.  Finally on the last seam I ran out of bobbin thread.  Doh.


The outer shell of my dream bag.

So far, it looks great!  Now that I've rested a bit and posted this, it's time to think about the lining.