Husker Bag–Displaying My College Pride

John and I have season tickets to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln Women’s Basketball games.  We enjoy going and to show our pride we wear our school colors as much as we can. (I can say our because we both graduated from the University of Nebraska, although it was many years ago.)I decided since we were going to so many games I needed to make a purse/bag to go with my Husker red clothes.  By the way UNL’s mascot is the Cornhuskers…shortened to Huskers. I used the Barbados Bag pattern designed by Nancy Green from Pink Sand Beach Designs for the basic pattern. This is both sides of the outside of the bag.  I used two red/black/white prints plus some of the black leather from one of the thrift store leather coats I took apart for the bottom.   It is hard to tell where the pockets are located so these photos below show a white card placed in the pockets.  I like lots of pockets in my bags so if a pattern doesn’t have what I want I add them.I used a white fabric with small black printed design for the lining of my bag.  I always choose a light colored lining as I made the mistake of making one bag with a black lining and I never can see anything inside!  I always put one zippered pocket and patch pockets on the opposite side of the lining in most bags I make.  There is a bit of a change to one of the patch pockets though.  Scroll down to look at the detail photo. 
I do want to point out the that the bottom is left open on one half of the patch pocket.  My sister showed me this trick a few years ago.  The reason is that you can stand your wallet or checkbook up and it will peek out the top for easy retrieval and the bottom will rest on the bottom of the bag.  Keeps the pocket from tipping forward when something heavier is placed inside. All finished!  I love it and have carried it quite a few times already.  You can see front and back views below.As a final touch I make zipper pulls for ease of opening and closing. For this bag I have one special one I originally purchased as a piece of jewelry but added a lobster clip and Ta-Da a fantastic zipper pull..  In case you can't read it, it says “once a Husker, always a Husker”.Also dressed up the bag with a bit more bling.  This was also part of a necklace but I did find that it was a bit heavy to wear as a necklace but is perfect hanging on to the base of my bag strap.  It could be a great key ring as well.I love the size of the bag, love the fabrics plus the leather on the bottom as it helps to keep it clean at the ball games, and love the subtle tribute (red and white colors) to my beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Lynn

Another New Fabric Bag–Barbados Bag

Found time recently to make another bag using a Pink Sand Beach Designs pattern called Barbados Bag.  I chose the coordinating brown and teal fabrics I already had in my stash for the bag.  I love the large poke-a-dot fabric!  The poke-a-dot, stripe and brown were for the outside an the light teal for the lining.  Important thing I have learned from experience is to keep the lining to purses/bags light colored as it is so hard to see what is in the bag with dark lining.   Did that once and never again as I can never find what I want in the black fabric lined bag.  Below are photos of the outside of the finished bag.

 

I pretty much followed the directions from the pattern for the making of this bag, just making a few deviations as far as interfacing and changing and adding pockets to the lining.  I changed to a lighter weight interfacing as the one recommended was way too stiff for my fabric.

At first I thought the bag might be a bit too deep but after carrying it for a while I have found it to work great the way it is.  I did find that the deep pocket on the outside (behind the stripe) is just the right depth to carry my Kindle or Samsung Note 8.  I added the zippered pocket on the inside of the bag.  There is always something I want to keep more secure on the inside of a bag so if a pattern doesn’t have a zippered pocket on the inside I add one.  I turned the bag inside out to get a better photo than the first one.  It is just hard to get a good photo of the inside of a bag no matter how hard I try to get the camera at the right angle.The other side of the lining called for a long patch type pocket and I made a few changes to it too.  This idea came from my sister Jeannine and it is brilliant.  Instead of stitching the entire bottom of this long patchwork pocket down you leave the bottom of one section open.  This works great to slip my wallet into or can be used to hold a check book too.  The bottom of the wallet rests on the bottom of the bag and the top is easy to reach and very accessible when I need it.  This is an idea I will definitely use again.  The last thing I did differently than the pattern was to make a bag bottom stiffener.  I started with a piece of plastic needlepoint canvas cut to the size of the bag bottom.  Covered it with fabric and stitched through it to secure.  Just put in the bag and press to fit the bottom – it stays put and the plastic is easy to stitch and this makes a flatter bottom for the bag.
Until Later,
Lynn