The machine ate my bag.

Disclaimer. What you are about to see might disturb you. You are about to see two week's worth of work destroyed in an instant.  Okay, okay, so I am being a little dramatic. It's not as bad as I am making it out to be, but it was pretty devastating when "Acci" the sewing machine ran off course and ate a greater part of two of my latest projects.

I am proud to say, this one survived, unscathed.

These, on the other hand, did not. You can see along the bottom side edge where things went wrong. As I mentioned in an earlier post it is very easy to blame this on the machine, but in reality, it is entirely my fault. All of our work leads up to this one moment when we "tirare," "turn" the bag. You have one chance to do it properly and if you mess it up, the bag is finished, or as I say "mangiato," eaten. The holes are permanent and there is no turning back. The curve where it all went wrong is the most difficult part of the bag to turn. It is literally a physical fight with the machine to get this right. Even though I hammered this area to be as flat as possible before passing through the machine, I am still sewing through two thick layers of leather, "cartone nero," black cardboard, and two layers of "salpa," lining. The needle slipped and went off the edge of the bag... and then I screamed, laughed, and walked outside for a breather.

I should've just told you that the black bags feature my latest signature design detail: multiple rows of stitching. In reality, I decided to use these two bags as samples on which I can practice turning a bag, so I practiced by repeating these stitches. Of course, once the pressure was off, the bag flowed freely through my hands and the second and third rows of stitching are nearly perfect. When you see my creations out there in the world one day and they have four or five rows of stitching, you will know the truth.

Accidenti.