Category Archives: Bags

Never Too Old to Learn

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I love learning new things. The reason I write my blog posts in so much detail, and carefully tell you every mistake I made, is so you might learn from my errors and be inspired to try using one of the bag patterns I use. Back in April or May, I was on the Klum House site, looking for something or other, and saw that Ellie Lum, the designer behind the label, was offering an Intermediate Bag Making class. It was more than I usually spend on an impulse purchase, but I wanted to learn what Ellie had to offer. … Continue reading →

Long-Awaited Concert

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This weekend we’re attending a Bonnie Raitt concert. We bought the tickets back in mid-February. I am not familiar with much of her work. Jas, however, knew when he saw her name on the concert list for this summer that she was on Rolling Stone Magazine’s “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” and “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” He loves guitar music and tried for about the past eight years to learn to play the instrument. But when he started trying to learn to read music, he put his guitar in its case and it hasn’t seen the light … Continue reading →

A Little Manbag for the Birthday Boy

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My partner of twelve years had another birthday last Thursday. On Monday, I remembered I had thought, six months ago, that I wanted to make him a small backpack/sling bag for future travel experiences. I had a bag in my head that I had seen somewhere as I cruised through the websites or Facebook pages of the various independent bag designers whose patterns I love. I checked all the pages I could think of, but couldn’t find that bag that had formed in my imagination. I posted on the “PDF Love of Bags” Facebook group asking for help identifying the … Continue reading →

Clams in Summer

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My dear friend, Debi, had a birthday a week ago. Her new age has a zero in it. So another friend who spends a part of each summer in a lakeside cottage on Lake Erie planned a birthday party for July 3 and invited the entire group of friends. In the past year or so, I’ve sworn off making bags as gifts, because I think all my friends are maxed out on my handmade bags and accessories. But as this is my summer of decreasing the size of my fabric stash, I decided to make a byAnnie “Clam Up” bag. … Continue reading →

An Experiment for Me

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I saw a tote bag somewhere on the internet early last week. Over the past months, I’ve been trying to decide on the best crossbody bag pattern for the vintage fabric my cousin’s wife, Diane, sent me with her request for three bags—one each for herself and her two sisters. But there are two pieces of fabric, and wouldn’t it be nice if I could give each woman two bags. The “Tourist Tote Bag” from Sew Many Creations grabbed my eye and my imagination. All the reviews and accounts of this pattern say it’s easy and quick. Several members of … Continue reading →

Blazingstar Bag Sewalong

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Just finished: A new pattern from Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness Patterns. She sponsored a sewalong for this wonderful new crossbody bag. The event took place over four weeks. I was late starting as we were in Texas visiting my Amarillo son and daughter-in-law in their new-to-them home, and then in Lewisville (northwest suburb of Dallas) with my elder son. After we returned, I was able to push through and finish the bag a few days before the end of the sewalong. I don’t believe I’ve mentioned here that my 20-year-old granddaughter is living with us now while she’s job … Continue reading →

Llamas and a Lazy Girl Bag

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The next pattern I tried in my seemingly never-ending crossbody quest was the Lexi Carryall from Joan Hawley’s “Lazy Girl Designs.” I believe I finished the bag the weekend of May 7. It was such a busy time with the final week of classes, then exams/juries week. And while I was snatching time from my schedule to work on this bag, I read on Facebook that Joan Hawley had died, suddenly, on May 3 of a brain bleed. This was the first of her patterns I had worked on in five or more years, and it just felt eerie to … Continue reading →

This May Be It!

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I may have found The Pattern for the bags for my cousin. I’ve admired Noodlehead bag patterns for years, but have never made one. As I was reaching the end of my test bags for Diane, the wife of my cousin, Ken (link to the blog posts about the test bags) and taking one last pass through all the patterns of the indie bag pattern designers whose work I admire, I came upon Noodlehead’s Hillside Tote from designer Anna Graham, and realized it was the perfect candidate. And now, with the bag finished and having eyed it repeatedly for several … Continue reading →