The November prompt as an Aurifil Artisan was bag making. Although I’ve made quite a few tote bags and zipper pouches, making something that resembles more to a purse was totally new territory. Nevertheless, I forged ahead. After all, what are several more zippers?
To dip my toe into purse making, I decided on what looked to be a relatively simple pattern – the Zippy Crossbody Bag by Sallie Tomato Patterns. I chose to make the smaller size, but right off the bat, I realized that the pattern was not created for metal zippers, because she has you extend the length of the zipper past the sides of the bag and trim them down later. You can easily do this with nylon zippers, but metal? Not so much. Determined to use metal zippers, I ended up creating zipper tabs for 7″ metal zippers and attaching them to both ends to create the length I needed.
I knew adding in some sashiko stitching would add interest to an otherwise plain bag, so after fusing the interfacing to my bottom front and back pieces, I traced out my design using a chalk pencil and stitched with Aurifil 12 wt in 2311.
Speaking of the back, I decided to omit the back zipper pocket and instead I cut a piece of fabric the same size as the front. Well, actually, I cut it too small the first time, and not wanting to redo all the stitching, I added an additional small piece at the top to make up the difference.
Originally, I wanted to create this with a similar color scheme as my sashiko pouches, with a faux leather accent. But when the whole thing was done and put together, I just didn’t love it. In fact, I didn’t even like it. I think it might be the color of the zippers, or the zipper tabs, but something just kept bugging me about the bag. So, I did what normal, rational people do, and I threw it in a corner and decided to forget about it. I couldn’t re-do the whole thing, having only a tiny scrap of linen left.
The next morning, I decided that I actually DID want this bag to be something I would use and wear, so I whipped out the trusty seam ripper and proceeded to take the entire bag apart back to its components. I cut out linen pieces to replace the faux leather and stitched the whole bag back together. In short, I’ve officially made this entire bag twice now.
Although seam ripping is never a pleasant activity, I am glad that I took the time to fix the bag, because I DO love it now. I lined it with a fun coral solid for a pop of color! For the straps, I used a decorative trim I found that was 1.25″ wide. I added interfacing to one side of the trim, folded it in half, and sewed both sides to create a 5/8″ strap.
Fabrics used: Riley Blake linen in dark grey (exterior) and Confetti Cotton solid (interior)
Threads used: Aurifil 12 wt in 2311 for the sashiko stitching, Aurifil 50 wt in 2605 for the bag construction and 2420 for sewing the inside lining shut
Wow! You adjusted this pattern quite a few times. To me that is great – forging on! I can’t imagine myself, though, taking out the whole thing and redoing it. But each one turned out fantastic. Love the sashiko stitching!
There was a moment where I considered just leaving it, but I knew I wouldn’t use it as-is so I took the time to re-do it and I’m so glad I did!