Pattern Testing

My blogger friend Geta Grama of Romanian Quilt Studio asked me to test a new bag/purse pattern for her recently so that is what I have been working on. Did you guess right? The pattern for this Amelie bag was really easy to put together and has great pockets and space to carry all that stuff we all carry in our purses. She is selling the pattern on her website as an e-pattern so anyone around the world could get it right away. Just looked at the webpage and she has the pattern posted now and the samples are beautiful.

This bag went together rather quickly - the photo above and below is of the outside shell before the lining and handles are attached. I did use the fabric I quilted but Geta used a heavier weight fabric which would be great too but being over an hour away from the nearest fabric store that would sell that kind of fabric I used what I had on hand. I had purchased this fabric last year thinking it might make a nice purse but had not decided on a pattern for it. Luckily I had purchased more than enough for Geta's Amelie bag.

The front of the bag has two deep pockets and the back of the bag has a zippered pocket. Geta has such a simple way to put the zipper in so don't be afraid of it.

Ta-Daa! The finished bag/purse. I just love it and have transfered all my stuff to it and am now carrying it.

Front above - back below.

I tried to take photos of the inside pockets so hopefully you will be able to tell what they look like. One side has a single pocket. I did add a piece of Velcro that was not called for in the pattern as I wanted to carry my wallet in this pocket and to make it more secure I added the Velcro.

The other side of the lining has a long pocket that is divided into the sizes that worked for me. The nice thing about both the inside pockets are that they are deep so things don't fall out too easily.

Well, now....what do you think? Did you guess I made a new purse? It was a fun experience testing this pattern for Geta and I found very little to change or tweak on her pattern. A well written pattern. She has a tote bag similar to the purse pattern so would like to make that some time too.

A few years ago I would not have dreamed of having a friend so far from where I live. Someone I have never met but we share a love of quilting that brought us together. Blogging has been a great exprience and love reading lots of different blogs including Geta's Quilting Studio and getting to know my far away friends. (By the way check out her blog as she has many more photos of the bags there.)

No more surprises for a while... but it was fun though wasn't it?

Lynn