For the Love of Solids Swap Package done!

Woohoo! Another swap package finished and ready for posting :-)
This is for Round 2 of the For the Love of Solids swap, and I am totally thrilled with how it turned out. I hope my partner will love it and use it.

I managed to catch 10 minutes of sunshine this morning to take some pictures before the rain started. Wow, I'd forgotten how nice photos taken in sunshine look! It's been so grey here all winter, but I love how vibrant the colours are looking. I will be sad packing this one up, I would use this myself in a heartbeat.

First up - the big item which is the finished messenger bag. It's looking good, isn't it? I adore this bag, and I am definitely going to make one for myself. Even Himself, who normally runs a mile when I suggest making something for him, wants one. As in, I didn't suggest it to him, he actually asked me to make him one. In plain manly colours. (Obviously.) But still, you could have knocked me over with a feather! High compliments indeed.

As I posted before, I made the messenger bag following loosely the pattern in Lisa Lam's Bag Making Bible. The lining is strengthened with fusible fleece, which gives the bag loads of structure, and the exterior fabric (Kona quilting weight cotton) is interfaced with woven fusible interfacing. The flap of the bag is quilted, and has some heavy weight interfacing to make it hang nicely. I bound it in the lining fabric for a touch of extra detail.

The construction of this bag was relatively straightforward and the hardest bit was just getting the small details right - like making the pieced panels to work out the same size as the pattern pieces and get the proportions right. I used incomplete strips on the back of the bag, and I think this is my favourite bit!

I followed the pattern to make an adjustable strap complete with slider and it looks really good. Plus, I've learned a new skill and they are very easy to make, so I can use them on other bags in the future too. Yay!

I used some sew in magnetic buttons as closures.

I added some pockets to the lining, in 2 different shades of blue. The back lining wall has a long divided pocket in aqua blue with space for pens, cards etc.

 The front lining wall has a pocket for a mobile phone.

The finished bag measures approx 14.5" x 11.5" and is 4" deep. It would be perfect as a general bag for carrying your stuff around in, would fit an A4 notebook or 3 easily, or some books. It would easily carry fabric etc for going to classes or guild meet ups, or it could also be used as a baby bag to carry nappies/diapers, change of clothes etc (although it doesn't have a waterproof pocket). It's very practical and lots of fun, in the bright colours. I also think the Kona Ash background colour will not show up marks and dirt as easily as a darker colour would, which is important in a bag (well, in my world it is anyway!)


For the small item, I decided to make a matching zippy pouch. I had a bright purple zip which I was sure would work great against the green lining, so I made purple the central colour in the star and used some purple perle cotton to hand quilt around the star. I really like how bright and fresh this one looks.

For the back, I used a strip of pieced colours, similar to the bag, and handquilted on either side of the line.

The pouch turned out very nicely, and at 10" x 10" it is a great size. It could be used for hand sewing supplies, including an embroidery hoop, or could hold make up, or could even be used as a pencil case. It fits perfectly inside the bag.

So there it is, another swap package done. This one is all ready to be wrapped up and posted on Monday morning and I really hope my partner will like it as I had lots of fun making it for her.

Under Construction.....

So, I'm sorry I've been pretty absent here for the last week or so. Life is busy at the moment! Until today, I barely sewed a stitch for the last 10 days, having work home with me lots of nights. I hardly managed to get online most nights either so I'm very behind in everthing. Eeek! Hope I get to catch up a bit today and tomorrow.

The only thing I have been working on has been my big swap item for the For the Love of Solids Swap. I decided to make my partner a messenger bag, and am following loosely the pattern in Lisa Lam's The Bag Making Bible. I'm not making it a laptop bag, as I think I would really need to use home dec weight cotton for that, so I've tweaked some of the detail in it, and I've added a pieced front, back and flap.

 It's almost a year since I last made a bag, and I forgot how much I love making them! There is a lot of prep work with interfacing etc, and that can be a bit tedious, but its nice to have a change from making quilts, and making something three dimensional is a different kind of challenge and lots of fun. This book was recommended to me by more than a few people and it really is great, with good explanations of lots of new techniques, to take you beyond basic bag making skills.

First, I made the flap for the front of the bag. I pieced some strips of coloured solids, in a variety of different lengths. The strips are 1" wide finished. I pieced these to 2" strips of Kona Ash, and then applied fusible fleece to the back. I quilted it in straight lines in the Ash, and then I decided to bind it in the same colour as the lining fabric for a bit of extra detail and I am very happy with how it turned out:

Next I made up the front, which will be underneath the flap, so not too much detail here:

And for the back, I stuck with the same theme but changed the layout a little, using 3 unfinished strips to give it some additional movement:

I sewed on the gusset then (seriously hate that word!) and I have the exterior of my bag done, yippee!!

I have the lining all interfaced with fusible fleece, and pockets inserted. One for a phone and the other for pens, wallets or keys. The colours aren't coming up too good in this but its a lovely shade of green and I've used aqua for one set of pockets and a brighter blue for the other.

All that remains is for me to sew up the lining pieces to make the interior, attach the outside flap to the exterior, sew the lining to the exterior and finish off with the strap and the magnetic buttons. I should be ready to post this by the end of the week :-)

I hope my partner likes it, I think if it all continues to go smoothly it will work out to be a nice swap item. I still have to think of my small item though!

And I promise I will do my best to reply to emails and catch up on my blog reading this week, I feel like I have been AWOL for far too long!