Alli's Bag


Alli's Bag, originally uploaded by soja.

OK, not perfect, but as a first go at making a bag completely from scratch, rather than altering an existing pattern, I'm pretty happy. It has ended up looking like they way I had planned it to look, so that can't be bad.
It's a messenger style bag, made from four basic pieces, the front, back, flap and then the bottom, sides and straps are one continuous strip of fabric. The strap is adjustable as it is tied. Next time I might try using a buckle and d rings, maybe with some webbing. I have some coming via ebay...
On the front, covered by the flap, there are pockets made from one lined and pleated piece. The larger pleated pocket has a snap fastener/tape closure. I made an inner zippered pocket for the first time, a little bit wonky...but hey - it's black and inside.
The outer fabric is red rust corduroy from the market (+ light/medium interfacing, perhaps a bit puckered...but I didn't think my sister would like a floppy bag), the inner fabric is black cotton from Ikea.
Hmm...so lot's of things to work on, I've tried lining bags with brushed cotton (U.S. flannel, recommended in BTRS), but they are a little floppy, not sure about the interfacing either, this is a little puckered, maybe quilting with some wadding (batting) or something? Though maybe just some better interfacing - this stuff looked dodgy.

I've ordered some lovely olive green corduroy to bind the Spring Garden quilt (can you bind a quilt with corduroy? I don't know, it's my first quilt and I just have this idea of having it bound with corduroy...ah, making things up as I go along). I'm hoping that there might be enough fabric left over to make a bag for me. One thing my sister and I have in common, we love corduroy, so there you go. And if Allison is reading this, well, I guess you knew it was going to be a bag, and if Jeannie sees this, yup, you do recognise that fabric. :-)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow, I'm impressed! I've been wanting to try a messenger bag but have been too chicken. Yours looks great, especially since there's no pattern involved. Bravo.
Soja said…
Thanks limadean. Yeah I'd been putting off making it, but really it was no big deal, I drew the pieces on paper, looked at the bags I already own, and used cheap fabric just in case! ;-) I'm going to try again, using some different interfacing, or something else, and maybe webbing for a strap.....