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A Place for Everything

A Place for Everything - Hand Bag

When I can't find the perfect handbag with all the right pockets in my favourite colour, then I make it.

I had a lovely leather hand bag made by leather artist Yvonne Twining in purple leather. While the leather was still solid the colour had faded after 3 years and I needed a new bag to accommodate all the stuff that I have to carry around.






Materials

First I needed a solid body and shell to support the shape. I bought a small Belkin laptop bag from Dick Smiths, it had a honeycomb shell in purple. I unpicked all the seams, keeping the innards, zips and binding for my bag.

The upholstery fabric is from spotlight. A chenille leaves pattern fabric in black and grey and a red dory slub fabric for contrast.
I used thick card like felt for the sides to help maintain the shape.

Construction

I embellished the chenille upholstery fabric by embroidering onto the leaf pattern. I used bobbin work machine embroidery with Ricki Tims Razzle Dazzle thread wound onto a bobbin and sewn from the wrong side to make veins in the leaf pattern.


The Belkin case has been used for the front of the bag. I attached the above pocket to it.

The grey binding originally covering the zip on the inside of the case was reused externally as a feature to hide seams.

A wide gusset was made with reinforcing to accommodate the width of a collapsable umbrella that sits at the bottom of the bag.


bag inside before attaching back


bag front with pocket pinned in place

The umbrella is partitioned off by a flap that acts as a false bottom so the bag isn't to deep when in use.
The inside has a phone pocket, pen holders and internal zipper pocket.
There is another pocket on the back which is attached to the other Belkin honeycomb back piece.


The handle joins to the front and back, crossing over the body from right to left. This gives you hands free shopping with security.



The red and black bag was made for a very dear friend, and I have since thrown the pattern away because the bag is really hard to make, and I don't want to make anymore. All the layers of fabric are very thick and hard on machine needles so some of it has to be hand sewn with a leather needle and pliers. 

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