I have moved

You can mostly find me here these days instead. I'll do cross-posting for a while longer though.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Olympic Bag

A few weeks ago I read a blog post by Happy Zombie where she had tried to make a lunch bag but made the classic mistake of turning her directional fabric upside down.

The fabric she used was a I <3 London-themed fabric and I was overcome with desire for it. I love all things British and with the Olympic Games coming up it seemed fitting. It had arrived after all!!

I quickly looked it up at my favourite online quilt store, Fat Quarter Shop. I know it might sound weird to have that as my go-to place to find fabric - why not a local store.

Well, first of all they do not always carry the prints I need and if they do they rarely carry the full collection.
Plus even when adding shipping cost and the sometimes inevitable customs to the fabric from Texas I still end up paying less than if I could source it locally.

Anyway ...

I got the London fabric last week (after a long battle with my local grocery store which also doubles as my parcel pick-up place, but that's a whole other blog post) and plonked it in the wash immediately. I wanted to make a lunch bag too from it and I needed it to be pre-shrunk.

When it was hung up to dry Sofia caught a glimpse of it and asked for a bag from it. I felt a bit greedy but quickly realised I had 2 yards of it and there was enough to share.

We settled on a small Messenger Bag from Oliver + S's book, Little Things to Sew. I had made the larger size for Isabel and knew it was not a very difficult design.

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The mistake I made with Isabel's bag was that I didn't interface it enough and I didn't want to make the same mistake with this one.

I looked at what interfacing I had available to me at home and realised quickly that nothing would do. So instead I decided to quilt the lining to make it sturdier.

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I had a remnant of a red Kona Cotton and some lightweight cotton batting. So I drew 60 degree lines all over and started quilting.
I was going to cut out the pattern pieces first and then quilt but I stopped myself at the last minute. I don't think it would have worked out as well.

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I used a Union Jack fabric as a lining for the outside pockets and their flaps as well as for the inside pocket.

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The strap comes from Isabel's Secret Agent Coat and the darker blue binding is from the first Secret Agent coat I made her.
The light blue binding with the tiny dot is also leftovers from Isabel's coat. Yay for stash busting!

I even recycled the hardware strap shorteners from a bag I cut up a while back.

I'm so happy with it I posted to Facebook about it: "Sofia, honey, we gotta talk about this bag. I don't think it turned out so well and Mummy's going to make a sacrifice and wear it so you don't have to."

Yeah, she didn't buy that.

I might have to make one for me as well ...
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