Ta Da!

I finished the lining last night around 11 p.m. Everything went so well -- perfect, in fact -- while I sewed the notions compartment. I was feeling smug that my graph paper prototyping worked so well. I had to install the zipper only once (a first, for sure). No seams were ripped. Just perfection. And then I slipped it inside the tote bag to see how far down inside it would hang. The zipper compartment lay on the bottom of the tote. What? How could it be too long? I measured it. Twelve inches. The tote, I knew, was 13.5 inches deep. And then I realized my mistake. The tote is 13.5 inches deep when you lay it flat. When you stand it up and allow the gussets to do their job, giving the tote three dimensions, the tote is just about 12 inches deep. Duh. Then I slipped the circular needles into the pockets and realized they were too wide (easy to fix) and too shallow (not so easy).

Argh.

I ripped out all the seams (the nylon backpack-y material didn't show the ripping out at all), keeping the zipper compartment intact. If it had been a mess after the ripping out, I had extra material, but I wanted to avoid ripping out the zipper. So one thing went right. By making the pockets deeper, I shortened the total length, making the notions compartment/flap a perfect fit. Finally. I sewed the top of the notions flap under the lining hem and then sewed the lining into the tote. I'm so in love with this tote. I really think I'm going to make another one, for myself. It can't possibly take as much time to make the second one. Now that I (sort of) know what I'm doing.

I realized last night as I crawled into bed that I forgot to install botton holes at the top of the gauge ruler compartment. I thought that would be a great way to store stitch markers. I might see if I can still do it. It's such a good idea.

In the meantime, here's what it looks like now, modeling my grandmother's size 1 DPNs and one of my circular needles, plus a few other notions and odds and ends.



The only thing left to add to the kit is the pattern (which I need to modify for my kittee) and to buy the treats.