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