This has been done for a few weeks, but once it was done I decided it needed a thicker wristlet strap. Which meant getting a bigger swivel clip, so this project had to wait for a bit. Then last week the larger clips arrived (along with some other hardware) and wow, they seemed huge! I wasn't quite sure how I felt about them at first, but by the time the new strap was sewn the clips had grown on me.
Here the details:
- This was made using the Messenger Bag pattern, but without the cross body strap and with a wider flap (see next bullet point). After many times of just carrying this bag when running quick errands, it dawned on me in some instances this bag would be better without the cross body strap. The long strap is perfect for when you are walking around a lot, but if you are putting the bag down frequently, the strap becomes more of a hindrance than a benefit! This is big for a handbag, so if you make this into a wristlet don't carry it around dangling from the strap. It's just too heavy and the wristlet strap should only be used for securing the bag to you.
- An extra 0.5" (13mm) was added to the cut on fold side of the flap piece. The sides of the bag have some room for the cross body strap, but that's not necessary if you make it as a wristlet.
- This one has the zippered front pocket from this tutorial. A link to this tutorial has also been added to the sidebar to the right.
- The fabric for this bag is this Sevenberry cotton/linen. This is nice fabric and easy to work with, but it is heavily surface dyed, so expect some spots where the dye flakes off or didn't take to the fabric. Of course, the polka dots also hide these imperfections fairly well, so this is not a big deal.
- A few of these large swivel clips are available here in my etsy shop. The strap fabric piece is 4.25" wide x 15.5" long (11cm x 39.5cm). The footing is 4" wide x 4" high (10cm x 10cm) and the D-ring has a 1" (25mm) opening.
