Workshop with girlfriend Kari - UFO Bag

Vacation is not only lazy days 'roasting' in the sun. During girlfriend Kari and Nina's stay - in between relaxing and playing tourist (me!), we also had lots of time chatting away and finish a (UFO) bag! How I wish it had lasted longer!

I don't have much practice when it comes to making advanced bags, so this one was a challenge! The pattern is from a French magazine, all is written in French and there is no photos or drawings that shows how to! :( This magazine is certainly not for bag making newbies - like me! 

 

 

Can't remember when I started working on this bag, it must have been last year....

The bag has two rooms and one inside pocket. I had never sewn a bag with two rooms/two zippers, so I couldn't figure out at all how to do it! MIL has been into crafts all her life, but when I showed her the pattern, she just said; 'french magazines does not explain anything'! Hubby tried to help too, but we couldn't figure out how to do it - hence it became a UFO!

 

I wanted a solid bag and chose very stiff vliseline - I think it is what they use in shirt collars... Silly me, I didn't know it was THAT stiff! Almost impossible to sew through all layers, had to use needle size 110!

The edge around the bag was just folded in (pattern) and sewn, but since I had already used that stiff vliselin, I had to put on binding. Impossible to pin or even thread baste through all layers, but fortunate I had bought those 'wonder clips' from Clover (I think it is?), which indeed did wonders!

 

 

So far - so good! :)

Almost! Here's the two zippers/rooms and inside pocket. The fold inside the pocket is not really there, don't know how it appeared on the photo...

 

 

Rings to be added to shoulder strap...

Here's Kari in full swing and concentration! :)

 

 

A challenge to add the straps to the bag...

 

 

Almost there! I thought the bag looked a bit dull when finished.

I had some wooden beads and since Nina is into beading/macrame, she got the job to decorate the bag!  

 

 

Have you noticed the small 'thing' just below the ring on the two sides, with one bead on? That's part of the binding! LOL It was a bit tricky to get it look nice, so we decided adding a bead to it and it looks like decoration! :)

The pocket in front is my idea, not in the pattern. The pattern calls for one ring only, but I wanted the straps a little bit longer and 'of course' the fabric I had was not long enough, hence two rings on each side.

The zippers could have been done better, but no way I managed! It's all about practicing, I know! The colors/fabric is a bit outside my comfort zone, but all in all I'm more than satisfied - I love it!

 

VOILA! Here it is! All done!

 

 

Nina made me a beautiful macrame bracelet - LOVE IT!

 

 

THANKS TO YOU TWO GIRLFRIENDS!

INDEED I LEARNED SOMETHING NEW!