Jen n' Jess Chapter 1: The Dollie

   Happy Friday evening all! I decided to jump right in with my little adventure.  The plan...26 projects from the OklaRoots Youtube channel and here is numero uno: The Dollie Mini Crossbody by Swoon Patterns.  This is a *free* pattern and one that I have had and haven’t touched for 3 YEARS.  It took seeing Jess’s tut on the Dollie  to get me to dust off the virtual bookshelf and put this pattern to use.

   I printed the pattern at 120% since it is a smaller bag.  Do yourself a favor and ONLY do this adjustment in Adobe reader. I won’t mention how long it took me to figure this out and how horribly Word failed me by cutting off pieces when I messed with the scale.  I found the pieces to be straight forward and easy to understand.  Just pay attention if a) you’re using vinyl as a contrast- some pieces you only need 1 when it says 2 (it does give a refinement of this but in smaller print on the piece) and b) on the gusset piece if you are using a directional fabric. Jess goes over this more in depth in the video.

  The construction of the entire bag was relatively painless.  The only part where I held my breath pretty much the entire time was putting on the strap connectors.  It really wasn’t all that difficult (definitely use double sided wonder tape here!) just sewing close to any hardware usually makes my machine go all Jekyll and Hyde. Luckily though, no needles were broken and the topstitching was passing. Also, with the snap tab piece I learned that I cut like a kindergartner when precision is key. I wonder if there is a way to have my Cricut cut out that piece for the next go...? If anyone knows how to make this happen please leave a comment below because that would make that piece look "summertime and the livin’s easy!" (get it...Sublime 😂😳🤦🏻‍♀️...I’ll be here all week).

  Be advised if you are using vinyl for the contrast pieces, birthing this bag (yes, that’s really what its called-- leave it alone Becky🤣) takes a bit of finesse.  Just go slow and you’ll be fine.  A little change I had to make was to cut my strap to 2" wide instead of the directed 3" only because I only had 1/2" hardware on hand.  And I used rivets instead of sewing the ends of the strap because my machine did NOT like going through 4 layers of vinyl. If you, like me, don’t have a rivet press I highly suggest purchasing the hole punch Jess links in some of her videos from Amazon. 

 

  In the end, I was left with another awe inspiring bag that made me feel like I was a pro instead of a newbie.  Now to figure out where to store all the projects I’m going to be making cuz obviously I won’t be making just one! 

Pattern:The Dollie Mini Crossbody by Swoon Patterns

Fabric is cotton woven and marine vinyl from Joann Fabrics