Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The BB Bag



When I was on the shop hop in Massachusetts last month, there was a small cross-body bag in one of the shops that really caught my eye.  I’ve been looking for a pattern for a bag that will hold just the essentials (keys, ID, cell phone and credit card).  A bag like that will be perfect for shop hops and other events where you don’t need to bring your whole life with you – like 15 Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons, a tape measure, library book list, sunscreen, Tums, tissues, and let’s not forget your husband’s cell phone and keys so he doesn’t lose them!



Unfortunately, the shop was out of the patterns and since I’m not local, it wouldn’t have worked for them to order the pattern for me since they would still have to ship it to me.  I have a bus trip coming up next week to see Jenny Doan in Syracuse and wanted a bag to use on the trip.  So I found the pattern online and ordered it – here’s a link:


The whole bag took me about 3 ½ hours to make from start to finish, over three days.  I cut out the fabric pieces and fused the interfacing on day one.  



On day two, I sewed on the zippers and linings and basted around the bag.  




On day three I added the final pocket, made and attached the strap, and made and attached the bias binding.





I made a few changes to the pattern: 


  • I used fusible fleece instead of fusible interfacing for the main outside pieces of the bag.
  • I made the strap longer than called for – my strap is 72” long allowing me to adjust the length depending on whether or not I’m wearing a coat.
  • I added a snap.  I planned to add a magnetic snap and even wrote a reminder on the pattern, but completely forgot to add the snap until it was too late.  So I added an old-fashioned sew-on snap.  It works.





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