Not gonna lie, I’m a bag girl. Always have been. From quirky prints to unusual designs I love them all! Since starting to sew, I’ve made myself a few, mostly simple tote bags, which was a good way to cut my teeth (or cut my needle? I think we need a new phrase for learner sewists, but as always I digress…..) as they’re easy to make, lots of straight lines, gave me a feel for different fabrics and were pretty forgiving of the odd wonky seam while I was learning how sew.
However, there are only so many totes a girl can have (I mean, the toddler already has four! Yup, along with my cheekiness, she’s already got the bag bug! See my post from yesterday with her Easter bags) so I started designing my own!
The first was the ‘Evie’ and evolved due to my need to be able to carry my essentials while either out walking the dog or out and about with the toddler. The catalyst was when she’d started walking (well, running. The toddler does EVERYTHING at a hundred miles an hour!) and we were having tea with friends in an outdoor cafe. I’d just put my tray with our treats, my purse and phone down on the table, turned around and saw the toddler belting off! Of course I went charging after her and as we got back to the table I realised I’d left my valuables on display (luckily under the watchful gaze of my friend!). However, it was a scene which was repeated frequently and so the ‘Evie’ was born. Influenced by medieval belt pouches it’s big enough to hold my purse, phone and lip balm (and of course spare dog poop bags on our walks with the pup). It’s become a must have on our outings and a few mums friends have asked me to make one too.
My next challenge was the ‘Japanese knot bag’. I’d seen them on Pintrest and thought they looked pretty cool and unique. With assorted birthdays coming up, I pulled out the tracing paper and pencil and got designing again. The ‘Anna’ was created! I made two as presents (though annoyingly forgot to take photos before gifting them!) and had plans to make one for myself, which went on the back burner due to assorted skirts, toys and other things I was sewing for the toddler, me and presents.
Which brings me to my current bag challenge. I’ve long admired this mandala fabric and a friend gave me just under half a metre. I knew immediately I wanted to make as many bags from it as I could!
My plan was to make an ‘Evie’ and ‘Anna’ bag, with a more complex pattern I found on Pintrest. However, it quickly became apparent that I wouldn’t have enough fabric for the more complex pattern. Given that I’ve a friends wedding coming up, I decided to try and make a clutch bag, something I don’t have already in my collection. As you can see the fabric has different colours but the background is a pale beige, a perfect match for my calico which I decided to use as the liner and backing to my bags.
Using my patterns, it was fairly quick to sew all the pieces together.
As always there was something new to learn, such as putting in a twist clasp, but I was happy with how it turned out.
And these are the finished bags! I was able to make an ‘Evie’ bag, an ‘Anna’ and the clutch that I’ve called the ‘Pippa’. There was a small piece of fabric left which I managed to turn into a small purse and there’s another small panel which I’ll use to make a drawstring bag.
What do you think? Are you a bag fan too?
If you’d like a bag made, please send me an email on bluebeaglebaby[at]gmail.com, comment below or on my Facebook page.