The Problem
The bag I was making was not the kind that you can easily sew together inside out and turn it right side out through a hole in the lining or hem. As a result, the construction of the bag is such that I am using bias tape to conceal the raw edges of the outer and lining at the top.The problem came with getting around the top of the bag at the sides...I couldn't maneuver the bag through the machine to sew the bias tape around the sides. I wound up with crappy, uneven stitching (peppered with several F-bombs along the way).
After picking out the stitches on the bias tape, I slept on it.
A revelation: the zipper.
Because I had sewn the end of the zipper a little too short (meaning at the end where the zipper stops), it wouldn't open wide enough for me to flatten out the corners as I sewed around from the front panel of the bag into the gussets on the side. I had assembled the zipper and added tabs to the ends, and on one side, where the zipper opened, the zipper was a little longer and opened wider, but on the opposite end, where the zipper stopped, it was restricting how far I could open the bag in order to get it around in the machine.
The Solution
Remove the zipper casing and start over. I started with a new separating zipper (that hadn't been cut) and re-created the zipper casings. After creating the casings, I did NOT cut the zipper down to size and add the zip tabs. Instead, I lined it up with the lining and attached it to the lining (and overcast it).
Then, I unzipped the whole thing. With the zipper completely separated, I'd have enough room to maneuver this through the machine.
I placed the lining inside the bag, lined everything up, and sewed the bias tape around the top. Voila!
