Wednesday 12 June 2013

Make a Messenger Bag

I made a new bag for myself.  I saw this one on the blog Plum and June and just loved it.  So here is mine.
I used a medium weight denim for my bag. This will be nice and durable.  The embellishment is pam kitty love, sarah jane children at play (as I have a lot of scraps of this to hand) and some hello kitty.  I mostly stuck to the Plum and June instructions except that for the strap and finishing of the top of the bag.
I started by doing a simple sort of log cabin type arrangement in pink and blue using a piece of flannel as a base.  I finished it all around in the denim.  Then I used another piece of denim for the other side of the flap (Plum and June use fabric) and a did a few lines of stitching around the edge of it and the edge of the patches.
Yes, I know, it isn't quite level at the bottom.  I love that bit.
I took lining, batting and outer fabric which were all about 25" by 11".  I quilted the lining to the batting and sewed the side and bottom together and then I made corners (how to do that is here by sew mama sew).
Then I took the outer fabric and sewed that the same way and put one inside the other. I found the outer fabric wasn't long enough for some perplexing reason. I didn't feel like making the bag shorter so I decided to have a pieced border around the top that you would hardly see anyway due to the flap and strap.   So I got out my scraps from making 16 patch blocks.  I knew they would come in handy one day!
So I sewed them into a strip, doubled them over and sewed them around the edge like binding.  I over sewed it to make it really secure as this also held the flap into place.  Then I secured it to the inside as well.
Don't look too closely, it is not the best binding job you have ever seen in your life.  My excuse (if I needed one) is that I was making it up as I went along.
I then made the handle.  The one in Plum and June was pieced the whole length but I felt mine would be too garish and pink if I did that so I had only two areas where I pieced it.  I made the handle out of lengths of denim and batting in the middle and quilted it in lines several times along the length.  Then I sewed it onto the sides.  I used a bright blue thread for all of the stitching that can be seen. 
Over the last few weeks I have read so many write ups about the quilt show in Oregon.  I have loved reading about it.  Well this week Sydney has the Craft and Quilt Show here at Darling Harbour so I am going to go.  I am going to go on Friday. I am going to be using this very bag while I am there.  If you see me with it, then please feel free to shout out 'Hey! Bag lady!!'.  I will be so happy if you do! 

15 comments:

  1. that is an adorable bag! I love bags and need to try making some more of them for myself!

    I am stopping by from the WIP post, hop by if you get a chance! http://domesticdeficitdisorder.blogspot.com/2013/06/wip-wednesday-june-12th-edition.html

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  2. Love the combination. Beautiful...
    leena

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  3. visiting from finish it up friday. Great bag

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  4. Really cute! I have just started making purses myself.

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  5. It's adorable, Marianne. Way to go on problem solving! Have fun at the show.

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  6. That turned out so cute! thank you for sharing at TTF!

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  7. Cute messenger bag. Thanks for the tutorial ... :) Pat

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  8. Cute bag... I like the log cabin block on it!

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  9. What a great bag! Have fun at the quilt show! Thanks for sharing.
    Freemotion by the River Linky Party Tuesday

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  10. I have never made a bag, seems hard. Yours came out great though! Hello Kitty is too cute:)

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  11. very nice! this looks like such a fun bag to carry :)

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  12. Very cute bag. Great colours.

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  13. Thanks for sharing how you made it a great tutorial and it is easy to follow. Your Bag looks lovely with all the bright fabrics and black. Cheers Gledna

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  14. Super cute - love Hello Kitty! Thanks for partying with us at Give Me The Goods Monday! Hope to see you back next week! Jenna @ Rain on a Tin Roof

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