[SharonH]

Hi Liesl! I just made four messenger bags in the small size. Again, they came together brilliantly and I am really pleased with how they turned out. For the first time I noticed the notches on the long edge of the gusset piece (6g). If you line up the notches of the back panel with these notches (which don’t seem to have any other use), instead of with the side panel gusset seams (as per instructions), then the back panel fits in just fine. This makes sense, as the gusset notches sit level with the top edge of the front panel once the front panel is joined to the side panel. I suspect this is the case with the large size too.

This is kinda hard to explain isn’t it, which makes me appreciate even more the fabulous Oliver & S instructions 😉

[SharonH]

Good to hear that it is not just me 😉 You should have totally queried the notch placement Heidi! Another way around it is to do what you did, just ignore the back panel notches, and you end up with a slightly longer front flap on your bag. I found that by reducing the length of the back panel I was able to squeeze a bag out of a smallish piece of fabric so it was win-win! I’m making a bag for each of my three chillun and a family of four we are visiting next school holidays in Perth (Australia). Better get on it!

[SharonH]

I have just made the messenger bag (large size), and I too had trouble fitting the back panel. There seemed to be way too much fabric in the back panel. This was odd because, as elleryolivia said, the rest came together beautifully! I think I may have found the problem…..I’ll try to explain. The back panel pattern piece is exactly twice the length of the front panel piece, with the notches in the centre of the back piece. Now on pg 31 of the book, in the section “Attach the back panel and bias binding”, the instructions say to line up the notches of the back panel with the side panel’s gusset seams. But you can see from the pictures on pg 31 that the side panel gusset seams lie below the top edge of the front panel. So this half of back panel, being the same size as the front panel, clearly won’t fit. Are you getting me??!!

Anyhow I trimmed about 1.5″ from the length of the back panel and its lining (keeping the curved corners), so that the notches are now asymmetrical, being closer to the “base” end than the “flap” end. It worked a treat, with the back panel fitting much more easily. Curve clipping still required. I have since made two more bags with the modified pattern (shorter back panel) and they worked great. I’ll put the pictures on flickr. Anyone else had any thoughts about this?!