Bag for Myself

My son bought me some lovely Cath Kidston fabric for my birthday as I said I wanted to make myself a new bag.  He bought me a metre of two different fabrics, one pink with white stars and one green with roses.

I had a look at some videos on line to watch how other people were making them and decided to make up my own pattern as I went along.

I cut the pattern out of paper first so that if it worked ok I would still have the pattern.

I had an old bag that I was going to through away that had lining inside with zipped pockets so I took that apart to use as a pattern for the lining.  I also reused the zips that were on the bag.

I bought some pink cotton webbing to use as the shoulder strap.  I also had some stuff that I bought in Dunelm Mill ages ago that looked like fluffy wadding on one side and cream cotton lining on the reverse.  I used this in the outer part of the bag to make it stiffer.

The bag was quite easy to assemble although I did have a bit of trouble in parts.  I made up the front pockets first, they have a gusset around the edge to make them stick out.  I had to find out where to put the magnet fastenings on the pockets so that the flap would close.  After these were made up and lined I sewed them to the front side of the bag.

Then I made the back side of the bag with the zipped pocket inside.  Next I made up the lining as it was done on my old bag.  I used some pink cotton sheeting for the lining.  Then I sewed the gusset to the outer bag.

It was now looking more like a bag.  I made up the flap next with the other side of the magnets in it and attached it to the back of the bag.  Then I sewed on the shoulder strap and inserted the lining and stitched it down all the way round.

Looking back on it now I think it was hard to attach the lining at the end like this. I think I should have done it with the lining open at the bottom somehow and then turned the bag inside out and sewed around the top for a better finish.  I am also thinking that the flap could have been a tiny bit longer.

Here are some pictures of the finished article.