This Is The Bag

.... that was supposed to be made as a dry run in this fabric. But - you know what? - I realized I don't have the time to do dry runs of bags. I mean, it's not as if they need muslins or something to check for fit. I still love that bright summer-fall striped fabric and I love all your suggestions for ways to coordinate and complement it, so someday I probably will make another bag from it.

Now, the actual fabric for the bag-in-my-head was this linen blend tea-towel from IKEA, 

the bag-in-my-head itself being:

This is the front

and this is the back

and this is when the straps fall down:

The fabric really makes this bag. That stitching! Already done for me, and all I had to do was lay it out as accent and pocket.

I thought the straps needed a bit of the same stitching to complete them. So I got out my embroidery floss and repeated the faux-herringbone pattern on the plain blue fabric. 

And added piping, of course. Piping -not designer fabric- is a bag's best friend, did you know?

Straps are my favorite part of bags. I could take a million pictures of the straps. 

Stop me!

Please! 

Thanks. Moving on, now.

This bag is not an original design. Very few bags in the world are original designs, really. If you use completely different fabric and tweak it a bit, a bag can look unrecognizable from the original. Honesty compels me to tell you that my inspiration was a $20 reversible thingamajig from a big chain store called Kohls. I bought it some years back to lug diapers and other such babyphernalia around. It looks nothing at all like this bag, but it's the same.  

I liked the design so much that I reproduced it in this fabric. See- it can take on this common trapezium-tote shape

but if you fasten that snap-hook,

it becomes this roomy, boxy purse.

An invisible magnetic snap keeps the opening shut 

in either configuration.

It has just two pockets - the patch in the front, and a zippered welt inside.

I didn't make this bag reversible like its predecessor, for several reasons. First, I didn't imagine that a white bag (lining color) was practical, and second, I wanted to add purse feet to keep that lovely cotton linen off icky bathroom counters and floors.

This was a really enjoyable project. Its color scheme was so Wedgewood-y, the design was such a simple one, I got to add hardware and put piping everywhere, and it was prettily different from the kind of modern, bold-print bags I usually make. And also because it was a birthday gift, meaning I got to give it away. Hurrah! 

Alas, dear readers, I cannot offer you a tutorial. I did plan to, but it was thwarted by the children changing their Halloween costume ideas several times and driving me to near panic. I knew it was too good to be true when they told me, way back in July, that they wanted to go as Ariel (already sewn), Rapunzel (already sewn) and a vet (one easy lab coat). It appears that now I need to make three brand-new costumes with removable skirts. The only reason I said yes was because I knew they would wear them all through the year in their play. On Monday, Jenna and I went fabric shopping to gather all the fleece and satin and gold trim that we will need. The only things left to buy are rubber mats and purple, rose and turquoise velcro. It sounds bizarre, so let's hope it all turns out better than it sounds, eh?