Weekender Sew Along : Making the Pockets

Hey there!  Have you gotten your fabric and everything together for your soon-to-be awesome Weekender bag?  It's been a busy few weeks around here, but I have been sneaking in some sewing whenever I can to try and stay on track with sew-along.  Despite my best efforts on a whirlwind schedule the last few weeks, I am a little behind, so this post will have two parts.  I will get you started today and then I'll share all the rest on Saturday/Sunday and then next week we'll get this bag together!

If you follow me on Instagram, I shared some tips last weekend as I was working on my pockets. Since I am piecing and then quilting my pockets, I have to do a little more thinking about placement and block size, etc so that my pockets will look as amazing as I envision them.

Typically what I do first is to measure the general pocket size.  For the end pockets we're talking roughly 8.5 x 9 or so.  I think about what size block would be good - in this case 4" is probably the biggest I want to go because I do want to add borders and I'm keeping in mind that I'm losing a HALF inch on all edges with the seam allowance.  (This is different than when we quilt ... so if your star points are on the edge, they are getting lopped off when we take out a 1/2 inch as opposed to a typical 1/4 inch!  Smaller blocks with borders are better ... in my opinion. ;-)

As I stated before, I am making focus blocks for all my pockets using Camille's Thimble Blossoms Minis patterns.  I start by making a block and then checking to see how much fabric I need to add to get it up to size.

For this end pocket featuring a Dwell mini house, I added 2.5" wide strips on all sides.  I cut some charm squares in half to get my border pieces. Of course, this will get trimmed down, but its a great starting place for me to quilt and then trim.

I did give myself the added challenge of making all my pockets from a charm pack plus the background print (Essential Dots White Black).  A little extra crazy right?  I'm sure I could have had all of these done if I wasn't hemming and hawing over the prints and cutting from my 5" squares! 

Next up, for my other end pocket, I have a Rise & Shine mini block.  I am planning to add borders in a similar fashion to the Dwell pocket above.

And then onto the main pockets.  :-)  For this first one, I pieced a row of Spools as called for in the pattern, including the sashing strips in between the spools.  To make it wide enough, I added some extra wide strips on both ends about 3 inches wide. 

I added a border of background to the top and bottom cut at 1.5 inches wide.  Then I pieced scrappy borders from assorted 2.5" squares. I will trim this to size after I quilt it.

I'm doing another Swoon for the other main pocket.  I really hemmed and hawed over the fabrics out of determination to use my charm pack.  In retrospect, I should have started with this one for the most options, but I think I will like the scrappy version when I am done.

I will update this post with my finished pieced pocket as soon as its ready!

UPDATE:  Here are my completed pockets!  (Sorry for the dark picture.)

This weekend's Part 2 Post will show you the quilting & trimming of the pockets as well as the main panels, bottom and zipper panels.

Don't forget to use #wsa2014 on Instagram and tag me - I'd love to see your work and give you a virtual high five or hand holding if you need it!  :-)

Happy Sewing!  :-)