Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A Couple of City Chicks

I'm doing a bit of a revamp of bag samples. I want to have lots of fresh and inspirational things to take up to Addicted to Fabric next week, I want to overhaul the look of the pattern covers and... well... I keep coming up with new ways of interpreting the patterns, and want to SHOW you!

Among other things, the City Bag got a freshening up.
I made this one from a few (garment-sewing) offcuts of fairly heavy green linen and patched over a panel of a scrap left over from one of my original A-line skirts. I used 32mm flat o-rings in antique brass colour.

This one, I made from quilting fabric I bought at GJ's for a completely different project..... but I thought it might work as a City Bag. I put a tri-glide on the strap to make it adjustable. (Tutorial for an adjustable strap HERE).


And here are two I prepared earlier.... but hadn't photographed properly. You can see my original post about them HERE. This red and black one is a quilting fabric I bought at GJ's about three or four years ago. The orange one below is made from the last few scraps of orange moleskin I had left over from hat-making days. The panel is a bit of Kaffe.

As a handbag to use and carry, I really love the City Bag. I've all but completely worn out the original cover-girl one, which I made in upholstery-weight microfibre 'suede' (and machine embroidered a huge bug on it). It always gets lots of comments.



I wear my City Bag hands-free style - across my body - and the curved shape at the top sits comfortably around my body, but it can equally be worn over one shoulder. The zip at the top makes it secure and it has a zippered pocket and compartment pocket in the lining.



I'm a bit inspired to make a few more, but I have other samples to make.

10 comments:

Lindi said...

Love them all, Nicole!

Unknown said...

They all look fantastic!

Helen Yann said...

I love the orange one!

Fer said...

Love love love! Especially the last one (I'm a bit of a Kaffe fan too...)

Fiona said...

You've reminded me ... I need a new bag and I've never made a city bag for me! That might be the next project once the Christmas present projects are all safely underway!

Love your new samples ... especially the green linen one!

Alicia said...

Loved all!!

Annie said...

I am such a soft touch for a bag-now I want to make one! Would love to see the one with a bug, and moleskin sounds yummy. Love ya work nic!!

Kathy P said...

Love the new City Bags Nikki! What weight/type of interfacing do you prefer when using quilting cotton in this particular bag?

A Peppermint Penguin said...

That's all very well (and it is, VERY well) but what about the insides? I always want to see the pocketses and what contrast fabric appears inside. And zoom in for a close up of your corners :D cos your corners is perfecto!

can't wait to see what you do next!

Yvette said...

Hi Nikki, these are great. I am wondering, about how long does it take you to make each bag? Even though I've made lots of bags now, each one still takes me ages. It would be great to know how long it takes an expert, then I can aspire to that once day :) Thanks!