Everything Goes started as Mr. Snowman
The Everything Goes Bag pattern has been and continues to be a good seller here at Among Brenda’s Quilts, but you may be interested to hear that it started out as another bag entirely.
Back in 2006 I developed a bag made of wool felt with a snowman motif. The finished prototype hung around on a hook in my office for a couple of months in bag limbo until a friend, Janet McClure, stopped by. Janet loves primitives and country colors so this bag was right up her alley, and she encouraged me to set to work writing the instructions for what became the Mister Snowman Shoulder Bag.
Wool felt in the Summer? Although the bag was cute and roomy it never did live up to my sales expectations. Having written the design for use with wool felt was the biggest obstacles for sales. After all, who would want a wool felt bag in Spring, Summer and Fall? Why didn’t I think of that… I must admit it was great warming my lap in a cold car in the winter though!
A sales disappointment turns into a winner
Fast forward to 2011. Still loving the shape and size of the Mister Snowman Bag, I was excited to discover a new product, foam stabilizer, that had just been introduced to the market. You’ll likely know about it now but back then this was cutting edge product for bag makers.
The possibility of using a foam stabilizer, such as Bosal In-R-Form, gave me new hope for my pattern. So in the spirit of reuse and recycle I reworked the pattern into the Everything Goes Bag. I ditched the wool felt and got busy sewing.
The new sew-in foam stabilizer gave the bag the body it needed to stand up nicely and gave extra oomph to the double padded straps. The curved pocket was added, and the snap closure was discarded and replaced with a zipper top closure. I also gave the bag a security zipper pocket inside along with two huge inner pockets, one to carry an iPad™ and the other to carry a notebook computer.
Because so much fit into the 14 ½” W x 12″ H x 5″ D bag it was named the Everything Goes Bag and given the stock number ABQ-159. Practically everything but the kitchen sink fits in the bag.
I’ve travelled everywhere with Everything Goes. It fits perfectly below the seat of a plane and is securely zipped at the top. A passport and boarding pass are safe in the inner security pocket. Between myself and customers, Everything Goes has gone just about everywhere in the world doing its intended job, keeping everything you need close by, organized and secure.
Every month I get pictures of Everything Goes for my Show & Tell page; in fact, I think of all the bags this one shows up the most in my in-box.
Below is a variety of lovely bags from the Everything Goes pattern made by customers. What will you do with yours?
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