Project Bag Complete!

Whomp, apparently I've been terrible about updating. My project bag is finished...and has been for awhile now, but I put it to immediate use and never photographed it. Oops. And in my sleep deprived state (thank you toddler who can get out of his bed now and 3rd trimester pregnancy sleep!) I can't think forward enough to take a better photo than hanging off the chair in my makeshift studio/playroom!

Is it okay to be in love with a bag? I love this bag. The pattern is the Crafty Traveler from Ellison Lane. More on my cosmic connection to this bag in my last post. A brief run down again: the feather fabric is one I designed on Spoonflower, the vinyl leather handels are leftover from Goose's diaper bag, the orange pearl bracelet and green arrows are from the lovely $2.99/yd fabric store near me and the blue chevrons on the inside are my Spoonflower design as well.

The pattern is great, but I knew I was going to need a little more secure storage. First I added an interior pocket and in front of that pocket a large (full length of the side) slip pocket out of heavy interfacing. This is perfect for me to store small embroidery or felt projects without them getting lost at the bottom of the bag. I probably use this pocket more than anything.

I also added a recessed zipper on top. It's the first time I've tried this so it's not perfect, but I'm happy enough with the results. And it definitely works as this bag gets thrown around!

Lastly I chose to use the same outside fabric all the way around (this pocket with the Urban Threads embroidery pattern (the stitches are a little wonky because of the water solvent transfer paper I used that I won't be using again!):

I was trying to use supplies that I already had in my stash, especially after the cost of the Spoonflower fabrics! Luckily I had the zipper (though I would have preferred an orange one!), the fabrics, Thermolam and the heavy interfacing. I didn't have the Shape Flex. A little research told me that Shape Flex makes quilt weight fabric feel like canvas. You know what else feels like canvas? Canvas. And that I have plenty of so I used my trusty double sided fusible webbing to secure the lining fabric to the canvas to give it some extra heft. Definitely extra steps, but it didn't cost me a penny (I like to think money I previously spent just some how disappears).

Now to stuff my bag more full of projects...

Project Bag

I have a ton of canvas tote/market bags from my old Etsy shop and they are wonderful for most of my storage/toting needs. However, like every other bag I have, they are wide open at the top and stuff falls out like it's on a mission. For the past few months I've been dreaming of a good sized, multi pocketed, zippered bag just for my projects.

My dreams were getting elaborate. Very elaborate. Prohibitively so. I didn't even know how to do half the things I imagined. And I'm not talking "an opportunity to learn new things", I mean it may not have been physically possible.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I have a habit of reading my feedly list in the middle of the night (leftover from when I was up nursing Goose every night). I save posts that I later want to add to Pinterest, but thanks to my half wake/half sleep state I often don't remembered what I save. Imagine my surprise to find that I had saved a post called the Crafty Traveler Bag from Ellison Lane. The sewing gods were smiling down on me.

Of course there are tweaks I'm going to make, but its the perfect jumping off point for this bag.

For more perfection, I had just ordered a yard of the first fabric I had designed. I had been looking for fabric, hoping it would inspire a bag design and hadn't found a thing. Thanks to photoshop and spoonflower, I had ordered my own design and just enough for what I needed!

THEN, I stumbled upon the lovely Urbanthreads and everything seemed to fall into place! I downloaded this pattern ($1!) and set to work the next day. It's going to make the perfect outside pocket.

Here are all the outside fabrics. The linen for the side panels and pockets, the vinyl leather for the handles, the feathers for the base.

And the lining fabrics (I also designed the blue chevrons to coordinate with the feathers). The orange pearl bracelet will be the main lining, the green feathers for the interior pockets and slip pocket and the blue chevrons for this large folder style slip pocket.

I'm super excited to get this made up!