New Shoulder Bag

The last few weeks have felt a strange mix of lazy and productive. Some days I'm just lying around watching time pass, napping and supervising Sophie play. Other days, I'm cooking, vacuuming, doing loads of washing, making play dates, running here and there. It's been a bit strange. That said, I still have things that need to be done, and only four weeks until bub is due to make an appearance, so I sat down yesterday to get serious about it and wrote my to-do list.

This morning, I've crossed off three things. Hooray! This post, long overdue, is another thing. Excellent.

About six weeks ago, I noticed that my handbag was beginning to fall apart and thus Operation New Shoulder Bag came into being. Something I've noticed about sewing, especially when sewing from scratch and making patterns up as you go, is that the more thinking you do about what is going to go where and how it's all going to be cut and come together in the end before you actually do the sewing, the easier it is to actually do the sewing part.

For example, I tossed around the idea of the bag in my head for at least a week. Just in my head. Thinking about what I wanted to get out of it (pockets/zips/straps etc) and how I would do it. Then I spent a few days actually getting that down on paper. I've been sketching what I want the end product to look like and noting things. Then actually drawing what each component will be made of and out of what material and what dimensions etc. Seems a bit ridiculous, but it's so helpful.

That done, cutting the material is the next (and generally last) really time consuming thing. Once those pieces are cut though, I labeled them, stacked them up and was ready to sew. Because I was again cannibalizing my old bag (reusing the zips and piping and strap buckle things), I needed to sew it pretty quickly so I wasn't actually without a handbag for any momentous occasions, like leaving the house.

Now the bag is done. I feel it does have everything I wanted, though the top didn't turn out as awesome as it did in my head. Not quite sure why, but that's what happens when you are experimenting and learning and stuff. It's got pockets on the back, for easy key and phone access (see the next picture for that). It's got an adjustable shoulder strap. The inside has a zip pocket on one side and slip pockets on the other for tissues and lip balm.

The top of the bag is inset, so that on normal days it's a standard bag size, but when I need to stuff extra baby/kid related things in there, it expands to be a super-mum bag size. Sorry for all the close up photos. I was taking them while on the phone to the electricity company and the table is a bit of a mess.

The bottom of the bag is quilted - free motion style - yay! and also surrounded by piping that keeps everything in ship shape. Material is scraps from what will one day be a super cool tent for Sophie (hello 2nd Birthday present!) and the inside is fully lined with leftovers from Steve's Aladdin costume. This bag cost nothing but my time and effort. Brilliant. No shopping required.

I feel this last photo shows off the inset top bit as well as how much better I am at putting in zips than ever before. Though Steve can attest to the number of times I cursed zips as I sewed it in. :P Will they ever be easy?