Bag Lady

I am a newbie bag sewer. While I doubt they will ever make up the majority of my sewing, I am discovering how fun they can be.

You don't have to worry if they will fit a person, and the ones I have made so far are not very big. So except for all the fusing-of-the-interfacing and cutting-of-all-the-parts, a basic bag doesn't take up too much time.

(Obviously the bigger, more complicated ones do take rather a lot of time and skill, but I'm not referring to those as yet.)

Here are a few I've made this week.

Pink Clutch

Fabric: Glam Garden by Josephine Kimberling. Still working on the scraps and yardage from my original order of this line from Hawthorne Threads.

Pattern: Simplicity 2305 by Cynthia Rowley. I haven't gotten around to making the dress or skirt from this one, so I figured I'd at least take a crack at the clutch. It seemed really simple. It was. It's basically a square that you fold in half. I am a little disappointed in the lack of, well, structure in the finished product, but perhaps that was my fault. I used a medium weight fusible woven interfacing, but I am starting to realize that I may need to stock up on hair canvas if I am going to seriously make bags. This purse delivered a lot of cute for not much effort, but it is definitely only suitable for casual, occasional use.

Recognize the applique? A recent purchase from Maisonette, which I pictured in this post. I am ashamed to say that I was in a hurry and...um...hotgluediton. *hanging my head in shame* And so I'm calling this bag a craft. I wasn't going to waste valuable time hand sewing something I will only use from time to time.

The inside of the clutch is basically just a zippered pocket on the lower half of a folded square. I initially wanted a jeans zipper for this, but alas, I had none long enough. I opted for this hot pink jacket zipper instead. I think I actually like it better.

I used the lining fabric from the interior of the pocket, as well.

For the second bag, I made a birthday gift for one of DD's friends. We had gotten some cool activity-y things from the craft store, so I wanted something functional that we could gift them in. I'm picturing her using this to tote library books and fun-stuff-to-do when she goes boring places with adults.

Child's Activity Satchel

Fabric: Flower Power by Jennifer Paginelli. Lining is purple Fairy Frost from Michael Miller fabrics. I had originally gotten the Flower Power fabric for aprons, but it was the only thing that suited this project. I was lucky enough to be able to get the bag out of it with enough leftover for a cafe apron.

Pattern: Simplicity 3662. I've had this pattern for years, initially intending to use the basic jumper pattern included in it. Never got around to that, and while thumbing through looking for bag patterns, I was thrilled to find that this old forgotten pattern had exactly what I needed. Win for pattern hoarding!

As DD's friend is on the tall side, I made the handles longer than called for. Actually, I believe it wanted you to use 1" webbing as the straps, but I:

1. Cut strips 3 1/2" wide and 30"-ish long

2. Backed them with fusible interfacing

3. Folded each strip in half, right sides together

4. Stitched a 1/4" seam allowance

5. Turned, pressed, & top stitched.

Voila, straps. I've made so many apron ties that I think I may have made these in my sleep. Once you make stitch & turn tubes a bunch, it quickly becomes old hat.

I decided to double top stitch the pockets and upper edge. I thought it just looked more profesh. Oh, and cheeeeeck out my fabric matching?! I never bother with OCD stuff like pattern matching. Happily this was pretty easy to do on a pocket, so I took the extra 5 minutes. Glad I did.

The button is not functional, but I thought the bag needed "something", so I added it.

I added a quick little ribbon tag before I put the lining in. I keep a little stash of inexpensive printed ribbon, and it's perfect for stuff like this.

I decided to quadruple top stitch the straps, and I totally love how they came out. Very sturdy.

I have an excellent clear foot that I use for evenly spaced topstitching like this. It has 1/8" increment marks on it all the way up to 5/8", and is such a huge help at getting my seam allowances and top stitching accurate. I highly recommend you check out all the nifty feet that either came with your machine or are available from your dealer. As I sew on a Viking, I usually have to buy any specialty feet. But the ones I've thrown down for have been sooooo worth it.

More to come later; I have a few Modkid Maya's that I've sewn, shop updates, etc.!