It's in the bag

Following my etsy v folksy post, whilst I was going to stick with folksy, after your comments, I won’t discount etsy. Thanks.

I hope you liked Monday’s last minute filler post . If you do get round to making the cake I’d love to know how it turned out.

What I wanted to show you last week was the bag I’m busy making. However things didn’t quite go to plan though. Not to worry, I’m back on track now.

It all started with a bag I bought in Mahon. Directly opposite our cruise ship were a couple of stalls selling scarves and leather goods. I was looking for a present for my mam (she was so hard to buy for), and as she liked scarves, thought I might find something suitable (unbelievably I did....).

Whilst I was looking for a scarf I came across a lovely shoulder bag. It wasn’t very big but had lots of pockets, which I just love in a bag. As it was only 8 Euros it was too good a bargain to miss.  As the bag got lots of use it became quite torn and battered, to the point that no amount of sewing could repair it any more.

I liked the style of the bag so after a couple of quick measurements and a rough diagram I set to work making one of my own. At first I was going to make it out of scrap fabric but then decided on leatherette. I have a love/hate relationship with leatherette so some things didn’t quite go to plan !!!!

I started with the flap, which turned out to be a bad move as that was the most complicated part of the bag.  If you’ve ever used leatherette you’ll know how stiff it is to work with so stitching the binding on wasn’t easy. I would have preferred not to have had the small pocket lining on show but as you can’t press leatherette (it melts – speaks the voice of experience !!!) I had to make do with a finger presser (a little device which lets you press fabric seams open without having to use an iron).

I next made the front and back pockets then had to hand stitched them together as it was too bulky to machine stitch – the joys of using leatherette...

After attaching the flap to the back pocket I hand stitched six small D rings to the sides and back so the bag can be used either as a hand bag or a back pack.

All that’s left to do is make the handles and attach the pocket linings. Hopefully I’ll have that done for next week. Famous last words.....

Have a great week.

Love,

Gertie xx

PS why not pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other fellow craft bloggers have been up to.