Strawberry bag

I've been fiddling around, not seeming to get much done the last couple of weeks. I have lots of plans, but a few stitches here and there, and I was fed up and drifted on to someting else. Pulling myself by the scruff of the neck back to the sewing machine I'd add a few more stitches, meet another obstacle and take a break. A long break. The reason for all this was this bag. I have been working on the two panels for the bag on and off for some time, and I could have added a lot more, but decided that enough was enough: it was time to finish this and move on. Not having planned anything before I started, gave quite a few challenges. The woven panel was smaller than the one with the tucks and pleats, so I added some side panels to that bit - a braid and some mure tucks and pleats, before I stitched the two pieces together. This made the bag a bit wider than I had envisaged, and I decided to make it taller by adding a piece around the top. I still felt that it was too wide, which led to adding lots of little stitced pleats going half way down the top band. Once I had finished the outside, I realized that the piece of fabric I had planned to use for the lining was too small. I went through several different options and a variety of colours, but eventually managed to narrow it down to one - red to go with the handles.

A search through my stash (which led to anouther great session of tyding, sorting and refolding, but that's a different story) and I came up with this old red and white favourite. I bought this years ago and I loved it so much that I couldn't bear to cut into it, so it has been languishing amongst it's red friends for ever. There was more than enough of it, and I'm really glad I chose this - I get a happy jolt every time I look into the bag - which is a good reminder. If you really love a fabric, use it for someting you see often! I added a hanging pocket with zipper and room for a cell phone inside, and an inset gusset with zipper at the top. I did that on my pink and green bag last summer, and I really like this solution. It was a bit fiddly to stitch to the bag though, because of all the pleats and tucks on the outside, which makes the sides ripple, so after several attempts and lots of ripped seams, I ended up doing it by hand, and it looks OK that way. The long zipper with its white ring pull was actually on my sister's cardigan when we were kids - I have a bag full of old zippers that have been ripped out of old garments to worn out for wear. How thrifty is that?

I used my strawberry handles (and a tiny strawberry pull for the pocket zip) for this as I had planned, but I'm not entirely convinced that this was a good idea. I'll try them out for a bit, but they might actually be a bit too small for this bag. No harm done - I could easily remove them and use them for another bag. Anyway, I have a new bag finished, and can stopp fiddling about. Time to start another project, I think. Now what will it be? The possibilities are endless - I think I have to sleep on it. More pictures on Flickr.