Luggage Tags gone bad

Always on the look out for small projects that can be made up quickly for gifts, I found this pattern for luggage tags from Linda Hubbard and Gail Mitchell from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. I picked out fabrics from what I had on hand, found some heavy duty interfacing and sat down to sew one for a friend.

Disclaimer - the pattern linked to is perfectly fine. The problems that occurred are because of my own stupidity!

I thought I read all the instructions carefully and cut out the pieces I needed. I pressed and stitched and stitched and pressed and here's my first tag I made:

Something was not quite right! The tag looked too narrow! I re-read the instructions and realized I had the wrong seam allowances. Then I had a brilliant idea that I could sew the plastic on BEFORE sewing everything together, thinking that the stitching wouldn't show on the backside if I did that.

The stitching didn't show, but it was extremely difficult to turn right side out, and when I did get it turned, the plastic was all crinkled and messy. It was then I realized that I couldn't even press the tag flat properly without melting the plastic and making a mess of my iron and ironing board. So, attempt #2 - FAIL! Even with all that, it looked like it could be a usable luggage tag for my own luggage, so I finished as best I could.

And then, as I put my business card into the plastic sleeve, I realized I messed up AGAIN! The sleeve is sewn around 3 sides with an opening to slide an info card in. When my luggage tag is on my luggage, the card will just fall out as the opening is on the wrong end of the tag!

I was all out of my chosen fabric and still didn't have a usable luggage tag! This project will need a do-over at another time when I am in a better frame of mind!

Have you ever made a project that just wouldn't turn out? Did you make it work? Or just start over?

--Ann