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.