I glue and you should too

Well, I finished my Holiday in London Duffle Bag just in time for Disneyland and it's gorgeous (I'll share soon).  I started with the outside pockets and instantly knew I wasn't going to be happy with them the way things were going.  My houndstooth bias fabric was crooked on the piping and the pattern on the pocket fabric was at a slight, but obnoxious, angle.  Sometimes I can overlook these things but I just knew this was going to make me crazy if I didn't try to do a better job.

Here's a close up of what I'm talking about.  See how the houndstooth pattern is different on at the end than in the middle?  Argh.  And those little green diamonds on the pocket are not all in a straight row.  It was definitely a job for the seam ripper.  And some glue!

I use glue for some of the steps when I'm assembling laptop covers for my Hipster Haberdasher store so I always have Elmer's purple glue sticks around.  I took everything apart and then ran the glue stick down the length of the bias piping fabric.  I quickly (it dries pretty fast) set my piping right in the middle and then folded it over carefully, making sure the houndstooth pattern was perfectly centered.

 

 

 

A quick re-stitching with my incredible new piping foot (you must get one of these if you don't have one already) and I was set.

 

 

 

I trimmed my green fabric to make sure the pattern was perfectly straight and then glued the piping in place.

 

 

More glue, and then I set the other half of the pocket in place over the piping.  I ran over the whole glued area with my iron really quick to set in nicely and then sewed it all together (using my phenomenal new piping foot, dang).  I didn't use a single pin to hold it together!

 

 

Perfection!  This made me so happy!  I know most folks wouldn't have ever noticed the lack of accuracy (I can hardly see it in the pictures) but that wasn't the point.  I knew I could do a great job if I improved my prep work and had good tools (the glue and the piping foot).

This is such a great pattern and the sew along videos by the designer Bari J. are a must before starting.  She covers the use of glue so much better.  I used the glue stick because it's what I had on hand but, with the right tip, you can get a much cleaner, detailed stream of glue.  More on that later.  Keep on sewing!