FINISHED THE BAG!

It took lots of angst, cussing, pain and frustration, but I got the bag finished today!

On Tuesday, we went to McLendon's Hardware and got some nylon screw rivets to attach the handles to the bag.  [I didn't like the instructions in the pattern, and came up with this plan]

The DH drilled holes into the plastic tubing that makes up the handles.

The first set of rivets, 3/4" long,was a little too long.  So, Wednesday I went back to hardware store and bought shorter ones.  They only had 1/2" and I was worried that they'd be too short since the tubing was 1/2".  So I also bought 5/8" in aluminum, which is what I ended up using.

So, I spent alot more money and bought alot more hardware than I needed.

I used one of DH's square punches (1/4") to punch a hole through the bag's side.  [You too can buy one of his punches thru Veritas or Lee Valley]

Then I attached the plastic tube covered with fabric to the bag with the rivets and washers.

Then the ends of the fabric tubes was pulled down and attached to the bag.  This was one of the most frustrating things I've ever done - trying to hand sew the final bit of fabric down.  Never again.

I almost gave up a couple of times, but after several hours over two days I persisted and won.  It may not be pretty, but it's done and it works.

DONE>

[I thought I might get Jelly to pose next to it to give some measure of it's size.  But, noooo, she thought I was trying to kill her or something.]