My third kitchen wetbag...third time is certainly a charm!

Today I was searching out tutorials for Unpaper Towels. These are just homemade towels you can roll or snap together, basically reusable paper towels. They are pretty neat, and since I have my mom's snap setter handy, I thought it might be a fun project. Well, I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did stumble across this tutorial for a kitchen wetbag. Yes, another one! However, first I had to fix my old one. I had one loop on it and it was a major pain, so I snappified it. I also added a second loop.

Lets just say, this was done in my early sewing days with my old machine.
As you can see from the stitches, there is still a lot of improvement to be had.
You will see the finished product at the end.


So here is the start of the new one. The author of this tutorial did a great job really describing the steps for novices like me, and I really appreciate it! I made a few missteps but in all, this only took me about 1:15...an episode of Next Food Network Star and half of a Judge Judy. Yay!

I chose Alexander Henry's Mocca print for this one. No, Mocca is not misspelled. It bugs me, trust me. I decided to cut with the rotary cutter, since I am truly awful with it and need practice. Obviously, I need more of it. Look at that nice long scoop on one side. Yay.

All of my cut and measured material. The PUL was a pain as usual, but at least I could see through it for use with the rotary cutter. If I were to do this again, I would cut the fabric for the strap 4" by 8" instead of 3 1/2" by 8" and sew in a bit deeper. I needed the folded in fabric to be more generous, and this really skirted the edge of the fabric. It did not catch with the needle in several places.

Pinning the PUL to the zipper.
Sewing the PUL and outer fabric to the zipper. This part was impossible to understand while reading the tutorial but made perfect sense while in the moment. Please excuse the poor lighting.
One side, done.
Putting the straps through to attach between the zipper and the PUL.
I did it wrong. I attached it to the wrong side so they hung inside the bag. Yuck! I am glad I caught it and could fix it right away, though. Let me tell you, using a seam ripper on PUL is a daunting task!
Fixing my mistake! No chunks taken out of the PUL thankfully. I just resewed the whole side.
Sorry about the angle. I used the fibery paper stuff to keep the PUL from slipping while I sewed. I had to sew the perimeter of the thing like a pillowcase. I will admit, I had no idea how this was going to work but it did...mostly.

All the way around except a small hole on the PUL side. But, here is my mistake. I was to sew through zipper for the pillowcase...but I didn't make sure to pull the zipper in a little bit so I sewed the zipper pull inside the bag. Brilliant, eh?
I ripped a few seams, pulled it out, and sewed it back in properly.
Adding snaps. I was very careful with this one to make them really even, but measuring didn't help much, I was in a tight space on my desk so I kind of winged it. You can't really tell, but this is a snap snafu. I pressed the male end in backward. I removed it and fixed it, using the same hole so no harm, no foul.
Pretty even if you ask me! Sorry about the messy desk.
My new kitchen wetbag...next to the one I fixed today. Yea. I like the new one a lot better. We use the old one a whole lot (we don't put our cleaning rags in there, I have a mesh bag hanging in the closet, but we do put in soiled bibs, flatfold diapers that we used as bibs, and dishtowels in there). I didn't realize just how big the old one was before this. We will just use that as a backup from now on.
All alone. Yay!