The Battle Of The Bags

I’ve talked about my new-found obsession love for sewing here and here and here and here. A bit back I found the this great (super-easy) bag tutorial over at Tiny Happy (who just has the most lovely ideas). I was really motivated to try and make myself a bag, so after spotting some fun fabric at the marché I set to work :

This was such a great first project to make : easy, straightforward (if you read the directions before beginning…which I didn’t, and made a very predictable mistake right off, but not a grave one…). It has two small inside pockets for my phone and for my wallet. I have been using this bag as a purse- it’s big enough for my agenda, keys, some random doo-dads for the Guppy, etc. I really love the fabric- it’s actually home decorating fabric, green and sort so satiny. I will perhaps make a scaled-down version of this for my nieces’ birthdays in September with some fun pre-teen fabric.

I dug my little hobo bag so much I wanted to make another larger version for carrying graded papers and whatnot, so I improvised and just sort of invented the dimensions based on Tiny H’s tutorial after finding the most adorable flowery corduroy fabric (again at the marché, my little town doesn’t have a fabric store…) :

I got all rock star with this one and rather than just doing a simple little button closure, I did a snazzy flap (which was of course also easy, but was fancy for me!). The photo colors aren’t as true as I wish they were, because the lavender lining material is just such a pretty color…just pretend you can see the vivid color, ok?

zippered back pocket

I mentioned in this post that I wanted to work on this bag from A Mingled Yarn (who also has such lovely projects going on). I’m the most proud of this one because it was really out of my league due to the complexity of the steps, and my unfamilarity in reading sewing tutorials, but I didn’t care! I needed a large messenger-type bag for an upcoming trip, and loved this linen fabric and knew it was destined for a bag.

snap-closure front flap

It has Velcro front and side pockets – I couldn’t figure out how to not have the Velcro stitches showing without losing losing the durability of sewing through the layers of fabric, but I have since decided to use a decorative dark blue ribbon to disguise the rectangles.

The large inside pocket has four mini-pockets – this was the first time I used elastic! Talk about living on the edge! I’m still so punk rock… Since this was my first real multiple-step project, I learned so much. It was challenging in that so much of what I did at the very beginning had a huge impact on what I was finishing up at the end…oh the interconnectedness of the universe…

So despite some newbie errors, a few slightly-crooked seams, and 4 broken sewing machine needles (all during the last 10 minutes of the project!) I am over-all thrilled with this. My sister-in-law who is an avid seamstress was commenting on how she liked my sac and asked me where I bought it! How proud was I when I told her I made it! I am hoping to make another one for one of my sisters who is having a baby girl in November, but with dark brown and pink colors (which is what they chose for my soon-to-be niece’s room).

Now if only I could just happen upon a large trunk full of lovely fabric and notions to feed my desire to make things all by myself!