Tuesday 18 June 2013

Bag "x" - Go to gift


 It's my daughter's friend's 3rd birthday soon and so I made her a little handbag.

The pattern is the gorgeous Bag "x" from Let's Go Out Girls' Clothes by Yuki Araki.
Essentially it's a tote bag constructed from 3 main pieces of fabric. Two large rectangles make up the body of the bag, and another equally wide but shorter rectangle forms the outer section.
 
This means there's a main, open tote with a side pocket on each side formed by the shorter panel and the band. The little gathered sash is a really sweet touch. Within this band is a snap that holds the side pocket closed.
 
Because all the pieces are rectangles, it's easy to scale the bag up or down in size. The first one I made, below, is the full size.  


 

And at full size, it's quite a roomy bag. When I made this one out of fabrics that I had to hand my mother in law spied it and said she'd quite like one as a gift, so I've got some fabric lined up for one that I think will suit her very well. Indeed this bag became a gift for another friend.
 
The only one left in the house is this one which is used to carry one's eye patch around as well as other girly essentials. The kiddy sized bags are 66% scaled from the original pattern and are the perfect size for a 3 year old's handbag-y stuff.
 
It's so absurdly simple to make that it seems silly to need a pattern, but for those of us not inspired enough to dream up patterns like this the pictures are very easy to follow. The only challenge left is to work on my handsewing and do a better job of some legible lettering, although I don't think my mother in law wants her name on her bag, so I'm off the hook after all!
 

2 comments:

  1. What a great idea. We made little bags for nieces some years ago and they were a hit. I am sure this will be too. Your lettering looks just fine to me

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  2. Thank you. My daughter is very excited that "Ollie" will have a handbag to match hers

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