Curved Flat Bag

My little assistant has been a dream-child this week.... even letting me sew without "help"!! I managed to finish a few bags over the last few days (rather than the usual weeks it takes to finish a bag). I'll spread them out a bit over a few posts.... (Blogtoberfest "post per day" and all that...).

This one is my Curved Flat Bag. It's in Denyse Schmidt deco weight fabric (from my favourite fabric treasure-trove), which is just a lovely to work with.

This bag was threatening to look a bit Nanna-ish there for a while, so I decided to make it more "quirky Nanna meets naiive craftster". I included three mis-matched vintage buttons and some rough running stitch detail. (BTW - Rough running stitch is the perfect way to hide rough machine stitching on the bit where the handle piece is anchored to the bag!!)

The buttons are actually part of my inheritance from my Nan (who would have turned 108 a few months ago if she was still with us). She died when I was a Fashion student, and my inheritance was a Nescafe jar full of buttons - buttons from the turn of the 20th century to mid-20th century. Some people inherit money... but I inherited GOLD (of the buttony kind, at least).

I digress...

So this is the inside of the bag... (Don't get me started on buttons!).Large zip pocket on one side for wallet, compartment pocket on the other for phone, lippy and keys. Lots of room in the middle for baby-wipes and those little plastic fish with soy sauce in them. (Am I giving away the contents of my bag here, or what...?).

I used Medium-heavy interfacing and light wadding to give a bit of support to the fabric. It's heavier than quilting fabric so it didn't need too much oomph-adding. The lining was a $2 per metre Spotlight bargain, which surprisingly matched the designer fabric beautifully! I put a sew-in magnet in the front pocket (behind the middle button) and a normal magnetic catch in the top of the bag.

I hadn't made one of these for a long time and I was so impressed with the result that I immediately started hacking into the Amy Butler fabric to make another one.... more on that later!