After the frustration of making my first attempt at a lunch bag I decided to break out my Singer 301A.

I wanted to see how it would handle the waterproof canvas so I decided to practice by making a purrse for my sister.

Isn’t that adorable?? I used the same pattern by Sincerely Jen that I used for my purse.

And of course I had to use fabric that had both orange tiger kittens and white kittens.

This purse is a nice size so I thought it would work great for concerts, music festivals and those kinds of things. I lined the inside with regular canvas.

I had a couple of issues, but overall I thought it turned out okay.

So I cut out pieces for a second lunch bag and started sewing.

This time I left the handle off the top to see how I liked it. Jay says that it needs the handle. I also managed to put the zipper pull on the wrong side so it unzips from the right instead of the left. *sigh*

The biggest problem I had, though, was trying to sew the binding onto the seams towards the end of the project. I broke seven needles within 30 minutes!!

After calling my mom and discussing the problem with her I tried a few more things and none of them worked. The only thing I could determine was that there wasn’t enough feed dog underneath the zipper foot in order to keep the material running straight. The long feed dog on the left was pulling the material, which caused the needle to be pulled and it would hit the needle plate.

On my Merritt I can move the needle position so that I can position the zipper foot directly over a feed dog, so I think that’s why I wasn’t having much trouble. Also, I have the zigzag needle plate on my Merritt so if the needle does move a bit it still has room to dip.

I decided that I needed a newer machine. I didn’t want to buy a Juki TL2010Q (which is the machine Jess from OklaRoots was using). As I was discussing the issue with my mom she was going through her sewing machine inventory to look at the feed dogs. Yes, she has many multiples of machines. She found a newer one that she thought would work and that she wasn’t using. So, ladies and gentlemen, here is my new machine:

Singer 403A

What do you mean that’s still an old machine? It’s newer than my 301A! According to what I could find on the internet my 301A was made between 1957-1958. The 403A was made between 1958-1960. So it’s definitely a newer machine!

It can zig zag and straight stitch, so I think this should work. I won’t need the zigzag function, just the needle plate. The needle can be moved, too, so I will be able to position the zipper foot over the feed dogs.

I have cut out the pieces for another lunch bag, so after I finish this blog post I’m going to get started on #3. Wish me luck!