New Bag

Why do I get crazy ideas?  At the craziest of times?  And why do I think that I can make something in – oh – a few hours, when in reality, it becomes so much longer?

I love my mini professional tote (all those pockets!), but it’s cotton batik, and to me it looks like a Summer travel bag (not that I’ve traveled anywhere this past Summer), and now we’re well into Fall/Winter mode and I really need something that looks a little more upscale.  Normal people with such dilemmas go shopping.  Me – I dig in the bits and pieces in my sewing room.  I had a few scraps of a very lightweight fake suede (knit) with something resembling snakeskin printed on it.  Not necessarily the smart choice for a bag that will be in use on a daily basis.  But I was determined (don’t ask why) that this was going to work.  No possibilities of using a pattern (which would have taken all the guesswork out of the equation), because I only had some very odd scraps.  And so I fiddled and measured and fiddled and tried out this and that and here is the result.  A few hours – ha!  It was more like 2 days!

I fused a woven interfacing onto the back of the “suede”, which made it less wimpy.  Then I added a layer of fusible fleece (just like the mini tote), which gave the bag some more “heft”.  The straps were a leftover from overproduction of straps for the mini tote.  The only thing that I did not have on hand was a suitable zipper.  Wouldn’t you think that a brown heavyweight zipper would be easy to pick up? Especially since everyone seems to be sewing bags these days?  Apparently not.  I ended up with beige, and I decided that I could live with that (black just looked too, too, too…), and now I don’t even really notice that it’s not my colour of choice – at least that’s what I’m telling myself, and don’t try to convince me otherwise.  (Note to self: Do not try to find anything in particular when the fabric store is having some sort of huge sale, because it seems that “normal” colours disappear first.)

 Originally I started to sew the D-ring tabs vertically on the side, then decided that given my rather odd choice of fabric,  the strain would probably put holes in my bag all too soon, so (yes, I did have to “unstitch” – ugh!) I decided that the tabs were better off in the seam.  The strap doesn’t hang quite right, but this really makes no difference when the bag is in use.

Pockets.  Lots of pockets.  Well, enough pockets.  Three on the outside.  (Why I needed a welt pocket, I don’t know, except to add significantly to sewing time.  Though, it is rather handy for stashing glasses quickly.)

Inside - two pockets on one side, one larger on the other.  There is also a zippered pocket above the single – it was just playing shy when I was taking pictures – it’s the dark brown peeking out above the single pocket.  Oh, and I love my corsets on the inside.  Makes the inside kind of fun, even if the outside is a little boring.

How long this bag will last is anyone’s guess.  I’m just hoping that it survives in decent condition until the spring, when I will be contemplating another bag for summer.  For now, I think I’m kind of bagged out.