Tapestry Handbag

I was rushing home from convention and for some reason, as soon as I got home I changed out of my clothes, so today's post is going to be a bag post.

As you know, I'm a tapestry bag addict and am always on the look out for a cute bag.

I found this one the other day - it has beautiful brown tones and is a small hand-bag size. 

The name all over the bag is Diverso Italy - I think it is one of those names which manufacturers use for a designer sound.

The bottom is protected with a liner, and it's quite roomy for a small purse.

It even has one of those credit card pockets, but I prefer to use a wallet.  There are lots of zip pockets, so it can hold keys, transit pass etc without everything getting all jumbled up.

I've already used it once - it's so cute.  and it was such a good deal that I was smiling the whole time.

Orange Puddle Jumper

My mom ordered me a couple of bags with her loyalty points and I received them the other day.  One is a super cute gym/overnighter bag in pumpkin orange.  Perfect for this time of year, and a nice colour for spring/summer too.

It even has a cute name: Puddle Jumper.

There are tons of pockets and its quite a good size.  There is also an open to the air mesh pocket for soggy towels/swimsuits.

It's very roomy, with more pockets for water bottle and other stuff on the inside:

It has feet, and a clear plastic protective layer on the bottom (slightly hard to see) so it won't get dirty or soggy:

The whole thing is quilted, and best of all it has perfect length handles:

 
It also has a shoulder strap which probably isn't necessary as the double handles are sufficiently long.

I don't go to the gym much so am considering using it as a work bag - I'm often lugging laptop and books from one office to another, and the bag I use is sometimes not big enough.  The other option of course would be to plan a weekend trip somewhere ... wouldn't that be nice?

DIY Hanging Laundry Bag

Do you just throw your fine washables into the laundry?  I do, but I put them in one of those zippered wash bags first.  It's always a hassle because you either have to dig the stuff out of the basket or set everything aside to add later.

So, hangers to the rescue. Sometime in the past couple of years, I switched from being a regular pants wearer to a skirt wearer.  I'd like to think it's because skirts are more forgiving but have a sneaking suspicion it's really because pants are generally a little bit too long for me and require hemming.

So, when I first started shopping for hangers, I bought "skirt hangers" - the kind with a clip at each end.

But, I find they are not so good at securing the skirt.  If the skirt is heavy, it just unclips.  And in an over-crowded closet, everything gets all tangled up. 

So, I switched to "pant hangers".  They're like a giant clamp; the skirts tend to stay on the hanger, and no more tangling.

But what to do with the extra skirt hangers?  I still use them, but now I set a few aside to make hanging laundry bags for tights and other delicates.  This is the one for dark tights:

Easy Peesy!

For today's DIY:

1 skirt hanger ... IKEA 99 cents

1 laundry bag ... IKEA 2 for 1.99 ?

Snake Purse Repair

The hand-me down snake purse from my mom has become my favourite. 

I have quite a few purses and usually try to use a different one every few days.  When I kept coming back to this one, it got me thinking why do I like it so much? What makes a great purse? 

Your must-haves for a purse might be different, but for me, I think a great purse should have the following characteristics:

• Size: a purse should be big, not briefcase big, but big enough to hold a duo-tang - I have lots of stuff I like to carry around with me.
• Have some outside pockets, with zippers or snaps so I can get at my transit pass, and access card without having to open the purse itself.
• Have a zip top closure - I don't like it when things can fall out.
• Have a few pockets on the inside - both zippered and non for pens, gum, candy and what have you
• Be a handbag - I like the practicality of a messenger style bag, but nothing beats the look of a handbag; ideally the handles should be long enough to slip over my shoulder when I have a coat on
• Be able to stand up to a few drops of rain - Lotusland is wet

So, when I damaged the snake purse during yesterday's fire drill, I was none too pleased:

Luckily the ripped piece was in the desk drawer, so I slipped it into my wallet for repair later.  I used that Weld-Bond non-toxic glue again. 

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

It's not perfect, but you have to look quite closely to see that it's been fixed! Not bad.

Big Yellow Bag

This is the same Nygard top, in fact almost the exact outfit I wore in the Wordless but Colourful post, but I switched out the necktie for my red obi scarf-belt and for such a small change, I think it looks much better.

But today's post is another bag post.  It's been on again, off again sunny vs  rainy and today looked to be a cloudy day so I wanted to use this new-to-me bright yellow Aldo bag.

I've been reading about yellow and have seen it around town, but it's not a colour I wear a lot of, so this bag was perfect.  It's got both the hand-bag handles and a shoulder strap, so just the thing for lugging my stuff. 

Here's a big pic:

I also wanted to give a big thank-you and quick shout-out to Sheila of Style Agent 909 for giving me the Blogger Appreciation Award, and will dedicate tomorrow's? post to answering the questions etc.

Baroque and Old Gold

Do you ever in your shopping excursions buy something that you think you will hardly ever use, but you buy it anyway because you LOVE it?

So it was with this handbag. I don't know whether it was the baroque fabric or the old gold look of the hardware - it just caught my eye. 

Even the innards were a pretty leopard print, and it came with a little compact mirror too.  I couldn't put it down.  It might've actually called to me until I bought it.  Does that ever happen to you?

I've used it only once because it is a touch smaller than I like; since it was only $6 and there was 50% off on top, I still think it is a good buy.  Have you bought stuff that you just love but don't actually use?

Animal Prints

Today's outfit is a sweater set from way back, literally ages and ages ago - from when the kids were small.  It's a twinset which I like for these transitional not quite hot but not really cold days.  I had stopped wearing it for a while when leopard was no longer the mode.

The under-sweater has short sleeves so it's not overly hot. I doubled the animal print by adding a leopard scarf, here's a closeup:

And to complete the zoo theme, I carried a hand-me-down "snake" purse which I got from my Mom:

I think this is now one of my favourite bags for several reasons.  It is big, has lots of pockets for transit pass, keys, security card etc and is perfect for the rainy days we get here.  It is also a relatively neutral colour.

I'm linking to Patti's Visible Monday where you can see everyone else's outfits for today!

Merci Monsieur

Do you know what these are? They look like alien worms don't they? But no, have you heard of George de Mestral?

He is a Swiss engineer and is the inventor of Velcro. I should really say thank-you to him.  As you know, I am quite security conscious, and I swear by Velcro. It is sooo useful.

This purse for instance:

It reminds me of Mary Poppins' bag:

Unfortunately, when it's stuffed to the gills, the flap pops open.  It's because there is only the one handle at the top which tugs on the magnetic clasp.

There is a shoulder strap, but I'm more of a hand-bag or messenger bag person.

So Velcro to the rescue:

Now, even when it's stuffed, I can shake it up and down and it still won't flap open.  All thanks to M. de Mestral.

Faux Fur Trim Bag Refashion

It's supposed to be Tutorial-to-Try Tuesday, but I have a lovely refashion which I couldn't wait to post.

You know how faux fur is all the rage now?  Well I have a couple of projects on the go, but they are highly effort intensive and I wanted to do something for that quick hit of creative satisfaction.

So, take one KGB bag:

Some faux fur from my favourite notions store:

This was only $2.99 and as soon as I saw the colour, I knew it would look great on the bag.

Then, just some two-sided tape from the hardware store et voila! Instant on-trend faux fur trimmed bag!

I have enough to do another line, but I think it looks good like this too.  What do you think?

Two For One

It's Monday, so Made by Me day.

IKEA had these laptop bags on sale for $5:

I quite liked them and ended up buying 2 of the same colour to use as a purse most days and a laptop bag on occasion.  Since they were the same, it looked like I only had one bag so to make them look a little different I just did a quick refashion and put a back pocket on one of them:

I also did the strip down the front - you can sort of see it in the first photo.  I must have shakey hands because the front photos turned out fuzzy. 

The pocket is great for easy access to loose papers and gum, and I'm even thinking of doing the side strips - it would be great for an umbrella pocket - but not sure if I have enough material.

Box Bottom Bag

One of the things I've always wanted to make is a tote style bag.  I got some tea-towelly size pieces of fabric but didn't want to just fold the fabric in half and add a strap.   After a while I finally found a blog on how to make the bottom of a bag flat (like a box) so away I went to make the bag.  It seemed quite easy

 and the bottom really was flat:

 But the only thing was it seemed a bit wide and floppy:

So I ended up using to cover the sewing machine, just by fluke it fit:

Project Post-mortem

• This was a good learning project but it would've been nice if I'd known more about what size to make the bag.  
• A thicker and stand-uppish fabric would be better, maybe something quilted?

Since then, I've found this tutorial: Lazy Girl's Tutorial on Box Bottoms which includes some dimensions.  This one is a little bit different because you have to actually cut the fabric.

Bag Lady

One of my kids made a pair of elastic waist shorts in school.  Yes, boys learn to sew in school now.  My other son made a backpack style gym bag!  They probably both sew better than me - at least they sew straight.

Anyway, there was some leftover fabric, so I thought I'd try to make a draw-string  lunch bag.  For me, the hardest part was figuring out how to sew the tube bit that the cord is pulled through.  I think it looks great:

Since then, I've made another lunch bag with an oddly shaped piece of fabric which I had to sew into the correct shape first:

and quite a few bags to hold freshly baked bread. I use new tea towels.  Here's one:

The bread bag idea I got in Spain.  I remember when I was there that some people would take a bag to the bakery and come back with it full of fresh bread.

I'm still not very good at making these bags.  The corners are always lumpy, it's hard to find a suitable cord and I never know how long of a cord to use.

Swag Bag

This is an almost no-sew project.  You quite often get swag bags from conventions or courses etc like this one:

I've used this one once and loved the size, but didn't really like "advertising".   I wanted to use it again on December 5th to lug some stuff, so decided to spruce it up a little.

My original idea was to make a giant pocket over the flap to cover the writing, using the multi-colour floral fabric in the bottom right of the pic:

But, it was a bit thin, and I would've had to reinforce it with denim or something underneath.

So I just cut up some denim "flowers".  They are also shown in the pic on the left.  But I didn't really want denim, so trashed that idea.

Finally I decided to use some pink cord fabric I had to make a giant flower and another greenish fabric to make some leaves.

The flap is not really sewable - it's lined with plastic or something and has secret pocket underneath.  So I glued it.

I'm using a non-toxic glue which I've used before to fix a pair of sandals, so I think it's quite strong.  Here is the flower and leaves glued in place:

It still seemed to lack something so I added button (that's the only sewing I did), et voila:

I'm hoping the glue will stick, but if not I'll either break down and try to tack it in key places or use that bumpy coloured fabric stuff to hold it down.