Winter bag for a friend
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 3:49PM 
In August I posted about my friend Cyane and the bag I had created for her using fabric of her own design. The fabric was printed at Spoonflower, a very cool business that will take your original artwork and turn it into yardage. Cyane asked if I would make her a bag for the winter with some more of her fabric and this is the result.
My starting point was a fat quarter of quilting weight cotton so I knew I would have to use some ingenuity to create this bag. My pattern stash turned up Vogue 8099, View B which I used with a couple of modifications. The first thing I realized was that the fabric would need more body so I began by fusing it to some fusible fleece and channel stitching with topstitching thread between the motifs on the fabric.
Adding a home dec fabric for the lining (along with some inner pockets) gave the bag plenty of structure. I also combined the cotton fabric with a pewter gray linen which formed the bottom of the bag and the flap. The Vogue pattern had only the flap and button as a closure. Now, I happen to know that my friend Cyane has trouble with the contents of her purse spontaneously leaping out at unplanned moments so I felt that I should add a more secure closure. I inserted a zipper into the top edge of the purse; the flap is purely decorative and folds over the zipper closure. I added her monogram to the flap and bound the edge with some of the lining fabric. The strap is made from the gray linen.
This was a fun bag to make, and I hear the recipient loves it. It arrived at her house on her birthday, an unplanned little lagniappe for a creative friend. You can see other examples of Cyane's creativity at Snazzy Frogs and more of her fabric designs at Spoonflower.
bag, purse, spoonflower in machine embroidery, purses, sewing 
Reader Comments (1)
I LOVE the bag! Ha ha - how'd you know stuff falls out of my bag all the time? Yeah, it's great to have the zipper! Thank you! It's beautiful!! Please come visit soon! So you can get some of MY stuff from the FROGS!! :) I think a children's portrait or two??? Love you Jules!