(another) New bag

Last week I made myself another new bag. I seem to go through them at quite a quick rate (maybe 1 every 6 months or so), but I guess that's what happens when you A. make them out of fabric and B. use them constantly and throw them around from floor to playground to chair to everywhere and anywhere. I guess one upside of the high turnover is I get to try out different designs and patterns and I never really get tired of one bag.



This time around I had in mind a slouchy style with mixed materials: a lovely heavy grey linen I've been hoarding for ages along with a recycled leather strap in maybe teal or red (the same scraps I make my cuffs from), or perhaps even one of my thrift shop belts, cut strategically to make use of the buckle etc. But somehow I just could not get started on this project (maybe it was fear of rivets?!) and the need was getting dire! So I pulled up this free tutorial and pattern from Very Purple Person that I've been wanting to try. I chose some stash fabric and quickly made this interim bag.



This is such a lovely straightforward pattern. I really enjoyed sewing it. The only changes I made were to make the handles a bit longer and, rather than pulling the whole bag through the handle opening as instructed, I left a gap at the bottom of the lining and turned it out through there and sewed it up later - as both my fabrics are quite heavy it was never going to go through the handles.



I also added a zip pocket to each side, using a heavy ticking from my scrap stash for the lining, adding to the rigidity of the structure. I used a heavy denim for the outer and a piece of this lovely "Hibernian House" print from a great local printer Publisher Textiles. If you follow them on Instagram you'll know what lovely work they do.



Even though this is a reversible bag, and I do love the print I used on the inside, I think I'll hardly ever use it with the red side showing as the denim is just so much more versatile and won't clash with anything else I'm wearing, unless you count 'double denim syndrome', which I just try not to think about :-) But it's a great splash of colour and visual texture. And I finally found a use for the cute little dear keyring I've had laying around - a fun zipper pull :-)



So there you go, a quick and easy pattern when the need for a new bag is dire, but also just a nice bag all round.