I pulled a guy thing

Get your mind out of the gutter. ;-)

I mean, I did something that from a cognitive level is something that a guy would typically do. Namely, even if he has a 50 page manual in front of him to build/fix something, he doesn't look at the directions. That was me tonight. I wasn't looking at the directions, and I goofed up.

I'm sure she's not reading this, but one of my closest friends from college, my college roommate, is having a birthday tomorrow. It's the same one I'm having in a few months, but we won't go there right now. Anyway, I wanted to make her a tote bag to bring to the beach with her for her birthday. I didn't start the project until today, just because I've been so busy.

Oops.

I'm pretty sure with having a holiday weekend I can get it done pretty quickly and get it in the post on Tuesday if I put my nose to the grindstone. I cut out the main parts, namely the outside and the lining and two pockets. My goal, if I can pull it off, is that this will be a reversible totebag, which would be cool. I figured tonight that I have to go back to Walmart, where I got the fabric, and see if I can find a coordinating fat ribbon to put on as a trim, and possibly use for the handle.

Anyway, now that I have better tools than the first time I made a bag, and my handy, dandy seam guide, I started stitching the outside piece and the inside piece, and made one of the pockets. I was about to stitch the pocket on one of the pieces when I realized a mistake I made, because I failed to reread this part of the directions, instead-- like a guy-- just forging ahead. I forgot that you are supposed to topstitch the pocket on BEFORE you sew up the seams to the bag. DUH. And I was going to say, so far, the stitching looks fabulous, and here I might have to completely frog the two big pieces just to put on the pocket. I don't want to really skip the pocket, either. Bleeh. The alternative is that I just figure out a way to do it without taking anything apart. But when it came time to do that, it was time to go to dinner, and we went out and stayed out, and now it's the kid's bedtime so no more stitching for the night. (sigh) Oh well.

I think this tote bag is going to look a lot better than the first one I made. Even though I did the pocket part a little wrong, I still have a good understanding of what to do, so it should come out looking really cute. Don't worry, there will be pictures. But I really need to remember, even if it's something I've done before, to really make sure that I look over ALL the directions first before forging ahead. I feel so dumb!