By Annie, By Karen

     You are about to hear the tale of my very first By Annie bag.  It is hard to believe that with all of the samples I have made over the years, and the popularity of the By Annie patterns, this is my first attempt at making one of Annie's wonderful bags.  What was I waiting for?

    Evidently, I needed a push.  Jafex provided a gentle nudge in the Brand Ambassador program by way of a challenge.  We had the opportunity to select one of Annie's patterns and Jaftex provided the fabrics.  It doesn't get any easier than that! 

    The goodies from By Annie arrived before the fabrics, so I was guessing that mine would be bright and colorful.  I received both pink and green zippers and pink mesh for an interior pocket as well as the hardware and Soft and Stable for my bag.

    Then the Tropical Vibes fabric line by Emma Leach for Blank Quilting arrived and those colorful zippers made sense.  I immediately decided to "go green" with the toucan print, green zippers, ferns for trim and planned the larger toucan print for a fun lining.

    After skimming through the pattern, I had some second thoughts. (It is ALWAYS a good idea to read the entire pattern before starting your project). The toucan prints are directional.  As a By Annie beginner, I didn't want to risk having a directional print run sideways!  I opted to "test" the pattern using the multi directional flamingos instead. 

     Because I was convinced I was making a "test" bag, I decided to use the panel print from the fabric line on the back of the quilted fabric that you create for the bag.  I pinned everything into my longarm and quilted away.  Annie suggest a grid quilting, but I don't own a computerized long arm to do straight lines, so I chose one of my favorite designs.  It was my first time quilting with Soft and Stable, the foam type of batting, on my longarm.  It quilted like butter!  I was impressed!

    I cut out my pieces and "sealed" the edges as instructed.  Then I made the carrying strap with the shoulder pad.  That piece is made with several layers of quilted foam and has binding around the edge.  I decided if I could be happy with my workmanship on that piece, the rest of the bag would be easy.  Cheating, just a little, I made the entire piece out of the accent fabric.  My thought was if the binding was a bit wonky, it would be harder to see those issues with matching rather than contrasting fabrics.  The shoulder pad came out PERFECT - with the help of one of Annie's free videos.  I was so pleased - make that amazed - that I decide the flamingos would be "the bag" and no longer a "test".

    Following the pattern instructions I made interior and exterior pockets, and then installed zippers and binding as instructed.  I'm not going to lie, there were more than a few do-overs and several conversation with my seam ripper to make sure everything was straight and even.

    I could have made the whole process easier on myself if I would have taken the time to watch the instructional videos on the Tutorials (byannie.com) website before I started this project.  I also chose a pattern that includes two bags.  The instructions are written as if you have made the first bag before starting the second.  Naturally I chose to start with the second bag.  That required a lot of flipping back and forth to read previous instructions.  Once again, had I taken the time to READ the instructions and not just skim through the pattern, I may have made different decisions on how to approach this project and saved myself some aggravation.

    I am happy to report that all is well that ends well.  I finished the flamingo bag and I am thrilled with the results!  These photos show the front of the bag with the zippered pocket and the back of the bag with the open pocket. The top of the bag zips closed with double zipper pulls.  The mesh zipper pocket in inside the bag. I know that the giant flamingo from the panel print will make me smile everytime I open this bag.  Choosing the panel for the lining makes this bag really fun!  I may add something funky to every By Annie bag I make in the future, because I am sure this one will not be my last!