Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Style Stitches Origami Bag



Let me preface this post by asking: who hates putting zip in bags/purses? Seriously? How many of you are jumping up and down waving your arms (well, in your mind at least?) Yep. Me too!

I've had a bit of a dubious relationship with zippered bags for a long time. Zips in skirts, fine, no problem. I found a super easy tute on doing zips in skirts last year and never looked back. But zips in bags just freak me out. They never turn properly for me and they always look messy and untidy.

Now, I know the answer to this is practice, practice, practice. But that assumes some level of craft-fail and I'm not good at craft-fail, it totally discourages me and I HATE making something and then not being able to use it. That's why I do buttons in all the bags I make!


So it was with a little trepidation that I  approached the Origami Bag pattern in the Amy Butler Style Stitches book this evening. One thing about the patterns in this book is that they have a lot of written instructions and not very many pictures and diagrams. When it comes to sewing, I'm totally visual (mostly because I have very poor spatial sense, just ask Himself about my parking!) and I was interested to see how I found the pattern as a result. But, I have to say, the pattern was really well put together (as I would have expected!) and anywhere that I really needed a diagram, there was one, which was great.

After faffing about with fabric for a while trying to decide which to use, and chasing the kids back up the stairs more than a few times, I finally settled on these:




Alexander Henry's Willow Wren, Girl Friday Cosmo Cricket and Ta Dot in Berry by Michael Miller.

I found the pattern fairly straightforward to make, there were a few little tricky bits in it around the zip ends when sewing up the seams but nothing too challenging. And I even managed to sew my zip reasonably respectably! Its by no means perfect but its functional (a big step forward!) and looks ok-ish, it could be a bit tidier and less bulky, but I'm planning on making a few more of these so hopefully I'll have it perfect by the time I get to the last one :-)



I really like this Willow Wren fabric, its super cute, I have a half yard and will definitely be ordering more of it! And the Ta Dot lining gives is a great lift on the inside. This little bag is a good size for sewing notions, threads etc. I'm going to make a few of them for my sewing box in this size and the next size up. I also want to do one for my handsewing kit.



All in all, I'm pretty pleased. It was nice to follow a pattern for something like this and not improvise as I went along which is my normal approach. Even better, my bag turned out not a million miles away from the shape of the photo in the book. I'm going back to tackle the Cosmo bag later in the week - more about that later in the week!




I'll be linking this up to Fabric Tuesday on Quiltstory and other great blogs -> check out the links on my sidebar!




18 comments:

Kelly Rachel said...

This bag looks perfect to me. I adore the fabric you have chosen as well. I am going to look into buying that book if it has such gorgeous projects as these!

noga quilts said...

This bag is so beautiful!
The choice of fabrics is amazing, like a little gem!

the gathering girls said...

Your bag is adorable!

Lina Thomlinson said...

Lovely fabric you chose! It sounds like you did just fine with the dreaded zipper and your bag looks great. Personally, I stumbled on the gussets while working on the bag so I'm glad you didn't seem to have trouble with those. Good luck with the Cosmo bag!

Spontaneous Threads said...

love the cute bag- must have ben on the same wavelength, I made one a few days ago too!

Homemade Heather said...

Wow! It turned out awesome! Thanks for sharing ~ please stop by and say hi sometime!

Sara @ Sew Sweetness said...

Lovely! I like that you put sewing supplies in yours (as I did in mine also!). Cool fabrics!

Anonymous said...

love this fabric! would love if you ever have a chance to come link up to handmade tuesdays @ ladybug blessings. www.ladybug-blessings.com

Bonnie said...

Hi, saw your link at Sugar And Dots! I have a weakness for bags of any kind and this one is adorable! Love it :-)

Quiltstory said...

Okay, that bag is darling! Super cute fabrics. Love it! Thanks for linking to fabric tuesday!

Jill said...

Very cute bag! I love the fabric. I'm not a zip fan either - but some of that is I live in the tropics and they rust and stick after a while, so I try to avoid them! (good excuse anyway!)

I would love if you came over and linked this project to my weekly Round Tuit party at:
http://jembellish.blogspot.com/
Have a great week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success

Elizabeth Dackson said...

Super cute! I love that Willow Wren fabric too, looks great as a little bag!

Becky (My Fabric Obsession) said...

That bag is super cute! the fabric is adorable.

Shelley said...

That's a really cute little bag! I think I might need to get a copy of that book. :)

Unknown said...

i think your bag turned out great! it is so darling!

Unknown said...

cute bag! I need something like this to stash my hand stitching supplies in. :)

Megan said...

Love this! Especially that topstitching. Great job! Thanks for linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday!

TulipsAndTurnips said...

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