Sunday 18 December 2011

Design edit...

I love everything about my new bag, the only thing being that the big pocket on the outside back.... I think it gapes open a bit. I was thinking about putting a bit of velcro in the pocket so that it doesn't gape, but then I thought putting a button on would look nicer, so I need to put a button hole in the middle of the pocket fabric - watch this space!


Monday 12 December 2011

Turned out well in the end...

So following the instructions from Heart of Mary's blog that I linked to in an earlier post, I've made my little messenger bag.

1/2 metre of the flowery fabric from 'The Internet' and a metre of the black fabric from Simon Boyd in Gresford.  Zips and interfacing from Calico Laine, and the magnetic snap from eBay.

I edited slightly from the instructions and added some stitching to create pen pockets on the front of the bag. I also added in loops inside for key fobs.





I did think about making the strap adjustable but decided against it in the end. If I make a larger one, I'll add adjustable straps.





I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The stitching looks OK, even though I was worried about my sewing of the corners and around the inside zip!

Friday 9 December 2011

How to make a new bag....

While I really love my North Face small messenger bag, it's a bit outdoorsy for general work purposes so I've decided I'd like to make something that fulfills the same purposes but looks a bit more girlie. I've been scouring the internet for patterns for messenger bags an have come across the following tutorials:

A messenger bag with zipped pockets, a magnetic closure, and I'll change it a bit to add an adjustable strap:
http://pinoyinoz.blogspot.com/2008/07/tutorial-messenger-bag-with-zip-top.html

How to add an internal zipped pocket and a magnetic closure: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2007/07/tutorial-zippered-and-slip-pocket-tutorial/

And I found this tutorial for a bag that's a little less practical and a little more girlie:
http://creativelittledaisy.typepad.com/creative_little_daisy/2006/01/basic_purse_tut.html

Sunday 4 December 2011

More crafty crafts

First attempt at quilting went well I think.....


I took the Beginners guides for the Christmas table runner from http://www.ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk/ and bought a pack of 4'' patchwork Christmas squares on EBay.  The pattern on the website used 4.5'' squares, so I increased the number of squares in the rows from three to four so that the runner was a bit bigger.

4oz polyester wadding was used for the quilting, and I sewed in the valley between the squares.