"Make Me Up Before You Go-Go" pattern review

My mom, also known as Grandma G in the comments around here, sent over pictures of a new bag she just made using the Make Me Up Before You Go-Go zippered pouch pattern by Erin Erickson. She used the Wildflower canvas print from my Outside Oslo fabric collection, and here's the result.


The design is for a big makeup bag that opens up wide enough to see all the way to the bottom. You could use it to store craft supplies or toys. Or instruments of torture like Mum shows in her photo.

(Apparently these tools are also used for sewing; read about them on her blog if you're curious.)

My favorite part about this bag: she quilted the tulips. They're puffy!


Mum provided some comments on the pattern, which I'll share here:
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I went into this project with every confidence that the pattern would be a good one, because I've sewn from some of Erin's patterns and tutorials before, and I know she does a meticulous job of pattern writing and sews many prototypes before she calls a pattern good enough. I wasn't disappointed! She did an excellent job of writing this one and also of taking many photos to demonstrate her instructions.

I had a little confusion when making the inside zippered pocket. I couldn't visualize how it was going to turn out, but I went ahead and did exactly what she said and followed the photos... and sure enough, it turned into a perfect pocket.

The hardest part of the sewing was putting the binding around the ends of the bag. I had to really do some wrangling (reminiscent of making that infamous Weekender Bag, but not that bad) around those corners, and I admit I picked out some stitches and resewed in a couple of places. Of course, I made it harder by choosing to do it the opposite way that Erin suggested in the pattern... I sewed on the binding from the outside of the bag, because I wanted to make sure my neatest stitching was on the part of the bag that would show the most. I'm glad I did it that way.

Other than that, the rest of the pattern was pretty easy to use. I thought the quilting made for a fun, attractive touch. I'd say if you've had some bag-making and/or binding experience, you could easily sew this project.

Erin has a lot of cool patterns in her shop, and I know she's been working on a fun wallet pattern that should be out soon. In fact, she just wrote a post about how much she prototypes during her pattern writing process. It's very interesting, and it shows all the hard work she puts into her patterns. Read the post and see all the variations for that new wallet here. I just may have to give that a try, too, when the pattern's released!
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