Sunday, September 4, 2011

To Cool for School

My little girl is about to venture on her own into the magical world of Kindergarten, and as I am trying not to drive her crazy with tears of joy, sadness and all other crazy mom feelings and allow her to go forth and learn and have fun I am making as many handmade things for her so she will have a bit of me with her. Cardigans have flown of my needles this past summer like crazy and with my new found love of sewing I decided to make her a bag. Couldn't be hard right? I mean I have only sewn on one zipper and done the simple tote and farmers market bag, a backpack shouldn't be that hard. I went in search of a bag on many of the craft sites I frequent daily and there were a lot of really cute bags, messenger bags and backpacks but none where what I wanted, then I saw this bag in a Pottery Barn catalog and said that is perfect



I had some Duck Cloth and went to work on the measurements and design, it was quite fun, until I had to actually produce the bag. I finally sat down at my sewing machine and went to work, expecting a lot of trial and error, but it went a long rather easy. I did have to do some seam ripping to make my zipper just right, but over all it was rather simple, except I used a medium interfacing rather then a woven heavyweight interfacing so the bag has a droopy feel, but I can live with that for one year. So here is my first ever design.*








Since I already had the main fabric, lining fabric and interfacing (again should have used heavier or even batting would have worked)and used the O rings from a purse I thrifted, I only needed the zipper and the piping, so in total this bag cost me $2.00. I may make another one with the better interfacing just to see how it would work.

I didn't take any pictures as I was making it, its interesting how much confidence gets beat up with self doubt, but I will defiantly take pictures if/when I make the second bag. If anyone would like the tutorial of how I made this bag please leave a comment and I will be more then happy to share with you, just keep in mind that I am a newbie and you may find a simpler way to do what I did

*Sorry but the model is not available for any photo shoots