The new pattern has arrived!
This is a small crossbody bag that is perfect for summer--not heavy or hot to to carry around. It's great for trips, walks, festivals, or whenever you just need to take the basics and want a hands free and secure bag to wear.
It has one main compartment that folds over to close the bag. One thing I love about this bag is the fold over style makes it easy to see and reach inside while you are still wearing the bag. It's also nice and secure and while rummaging around inside and things aren't going to fall out.
The main compartment doesn't have any pockets, but you can repeat the exterior pocket panel on the inside if you need a pocket inside.
The fold over style does mean a bit of the lining will peak out on the front, so use something pretty for your lining. Because this part is visible on the front, the instructions mention you should start topstitching in the middle of piece E. Starting there will hide any overlap of the stitching under the flap when the bag is closed.
The lining is backed by muslin to give it the some structure. Flannel can be substituted for the muslin, but don't substitute anything thick or puffy or it will be hard to fold the top over.
The flap is a good place to highlight a snippet of a favorite fabric. The upper half of the flap (F) piece is the part that will show on the front of the bag.
The flap closes with two 14mm magnetic snaps. If you use larger snaps, they probably need to be moved upward some so you can stitch past them.
There is one pocket spanning the lower back side. It is large enough for many phones and unless you have a huge phone it should be easy to get in and out of the pocket. My phone is 5.5" x 2.75" and I can get into the pocket with one hand while wearing the bag.
So I hope you like it and enjoy making the bag! It doesn't take too long to make and doesn't use a lot of materials. A fat quarter can be used for the exterior, lining, and muslin. If you are using yardage, you'll need at least 1/3 yard to accommodate the height of piece E.
Below are some tips/additional info for the pattern. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Footings:
Measurements are given for the footing interfacing, but you can just freehand cut a narrow strip of interfacing to go down the center. You want some interfacing to make the pieces more firm, but don't want to interface all the way to the edges or it can get stiff.
This piece starts off as one to make it easier to handle and then you cut it into two pieces. If you need to trim it up, no worries. My edges on these skinny little pieces can be a little off so I made this piece a little longer than necessary in case it ended up being trimmed.
You can also make this piece wider, but the footings will need to be moved to the side seams. The main caveat with the footing pieces is you need to be able to get the strap clips attached to them and if the clip has a tiny opening this could be difficult.
Strap:
The finished strap has a 22" drop and if you are average height/size woman, the bag will rest on your hip. This measurement doesn't include the swivel clip and the ends are folded over the clip about 1.5" on each so there is a little bit of hedge built in here too. The strap is made last in the instructions so the bag will be finished and you can use Wonder Clips to clip the strap to the swivel clip, attach the strap to the bag, and then see if you need to make adjustments.
The strap fabric piece is 50" long and while it's nice if you can cut one continuous piece, shorter pieces can be sewn together on the bias to get the finished length.
The interfacing piece is also very long at 46" (the ends aren't interfaced so they are easier to sew them to the clip) and if you don't have this length of interfacing, you can use smaller pieces and patch them together.
It's actually easier to do this than to cut a long, skinny strip so you might want to bust a move on your interfacing scraps with this tip. The only thing you MUST do if you do this is to make sure the edges overlap when you apply the pieces. If you look at the photo below, you can see this along the left side of the wool mat.
So about that wool mat...these are great for pressing long, thin pieces that want to roll over on themselves and can just generally be a painful (along with some burns) to manage. The trick I've discovered is to pin the piece to a wool mat (you might also be able to do this directly to your ironing board) with glass head pins. Like this:
I've got the top pinned to hold it down and then the bottom can also be pinned and your then press between the pins. Everything has to be moved as you finish the section, but just use the mat as a giant pincushion to hold your pins and it ends up going to pretty quickly and painlessly.
Then keep the mat away from your cat! My cat is very intrigued by this mat when it's warm. It does have that funky wool smell when it's warm and she is quite interested to know if there is an animal in the house.
Clip:
The clips I'm using are 1.5" high with a 0.75" attachment point. Most clips between 1" - 2" high are going to work for this bag.
The strap in the pattern is 1/2" wide, which is pretty narrow. I happen to like how the skinny strap looks, but feel free to make it wider if you prefer and your clip has an opening larger than 1/2". Just cut the strap fabric piece 4x the width of the attachment point.
