August 2013 and more bags. Not all for me, in fact none for me. These are all going to new homes. A work colleague asked me to make her one and said she’d pay me for it! Felt kind of weird though taking money for something I made. I charged only to cover cost. The other two went to friends that I offered to make bags for. Everyone was happy with their new bags.

Lyn’s bag

Sue’s bag

Amanda’s bag.

You might have noticed they are all the same, but they all have different handles. No two bags I make are ever the same. All unique!

July 2013, don’t be fooled by the amount I’ve sewn so far. I am still nervous, and get sweaty hands and a headache whenever I sit down at the sewing machine. At the moment I’m loving the preparation more than the sewing. I take real pleasure and pride in marking out my fabric and plotting where best to mark the fabric to get the best showing of the pattern that I’m working with.

I’m also experimenting with sizes and dimensions of bags. 19th July 2013 I make a lovely red spotty one which I am initially very happy with but after using once realise its not quite right. Why you might ask? Well the handles are too short and its not got enough depth/width, too narrow. And it really doesn’t work. So I remove the handles, not letting them go to waste and I use the bag for my scrap materials.

This is the  rubbish  one that didn’t work!

27th July, I alter the dimensions of the bag, making it deeper and the handles longer again, no major changes but it makes a hell of a difference. I’m so so happy with this one. I love the fabric too. I use the beach hut and boat fabric for the inside, however the bag is reversible so this could become the outside, but I love seeing it when I look in the bag.

It is now July, and I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks now, and avidly reading the blog of Lauren Guthrie from the Great British Sewing Bee, (guthrie-ghani.co.uk) and her tutorial on making a weekend bag. I fell in love with the fabric she used and found some on ebay and promptly bought a meter of it. I also bought a meter of the clock fabric from Lauren’s online shop, and some other beautiful fabric too. Oh and I bought the webbing that she used for the straps (oh yes people I am an original thinker!). Just realised all that doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t go look at Lauren’s blog and her tutorial! Oh well if you want it to make sense you’ll have to go look.

Now obviously I decide that the bag in the tutorial is a bit too scary for me to take on for my first attempt (surprise surprise) and so I adapt it so it is less scary for me. I make it smaller, and leave out the pockets, and the magnetic snap fastener, and all the padding. Oh and I also end up using totally different fabric as the newly purchased fabric is far too nice and pretty to be cut up just yet (otherwise known as, I’m too scared). I’ll just sit and admire it for a while. Yes I will!

I bought some different webbing to use as straps from the lovely lovely Merchant & Mills in rye and used this instead, and found that I had enough fabric left over from the cushion making to use. I felt justified in using this as I felt it would be no biggie if I messed it up, so to speak. I’ll try not to bore you with too many pictures but I was so damned proud of the finished product that I took about a squillion pictures of it. I’ll narrow it down to the best ones. Or will I?

Naff modelling pic

Inside. Reversible.