My handy new bag
I need a new bag I thought to myself. Well, actually I probably didn’t. But then again, I only have one (I’m so not your typical female am I?!) and it’s fairly small so maybe I did. I went shopping and discovered that the sort of bag I had in mind costs rather more than I had to spend. Nothing new there. But looking at them I thought, pah, I could make that myself in an hour or two. And for less than half the price. I’ve been thinking that a lot lately. I recently made myself two pairs of linen trousers for less than £50 (including all the zips and threads), which is roughly the price of one pair of trousers from somewhere like White Stuff. Result, I thought. So if I wanted a bag with the sort of money I had to spend I’d have to make one. Not a problem. And for around £10 and a couple of hours work I designed and made myself a lovely stripey number. Oh yes, lovely it is!
If I were making it again, I would of course do some things differently. I have a bad habit of ‘designing on the hoof’ – ie I pretty much make it up as I go along. Well, I start off with a plan, a pattern, but then change my mind and alter it half way through. It seems to be much the same way I do anything. I should make a toile first. Well I would if it was something important or expensive, but for something simple like this I’m happy to just go with the flow!
I made it in one of my beloved Kaffe Fassett fabrics
and used a Suffolk puff to decorate the closure.
Big enough to hold something A4, but not too big to lose things forever. Perfect!
Very simple as it may be I was pleased with the Suffolk puff detail on the closure – little things please little minds! I like the added texture and change in direction of the stripe. I also like the way I made the centre of it match the binding and inside strap fabric (a black linen). I must’ve been on a creative roll there! I enjoyed working out how to make the puff like this and thought that maybe you’d like to have a go too, so I wrote a simple tutorial which is in the next post. Let me know what you think!
I don’t know how, but it’s got to the wee small hours already, so I’ll say ta ra for now and will be back soon.
Love Stephie x
