Time For a Change

If someone gave you two mini-skirts.....

..... and a strap.....

..... what would you make?

A bag, of course! And here's my bag. It's the handbag/toddler size Time for a Change bag, from the pattern by Erin (Erickson) Gilbey of Dog Under My Desk. (Have I ever mentioned her on this blog before???)

Of course no one handed me two mini-skirts and a strap. I'm just being silly. I made them myself, but seeing the outer bag and the lining just made me think of little mini-skirts. :)

The fabric (as well as the fabric I used in the Roundabout Hobo) was a gift from Jess (not her designs) for Christmas several years ago. I loved it, and I was just waiting for the right bag to put it on, because I knew it should be a big one to show off the lovely print. This bag fit the bill!

Below is the other side. Believe it or not, I fussy-cut every single piece except the strap and zipper tab! I wanted the birds to be in good positions, but I didn't want them to 'look' fussy-cut. Make sense? I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I LOVE this bag! The pattern was written with Erin's usual perfection and was great to sew. The only challenge I had was with those curves at the zipper ends. It wasn't that they were so hard, but just that I'm a bit of a perfectionist myself, and I wanted them 'just right'. Erin's instructions were ever-so-helpful, and I'm pleased with the result.

It's a big bag, even though it's the smaller of the two included in the pattern. The bigger one is intended to be a diaper bag, but could be used for anything you need a BIG bag for. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with mine. It's bigger than I use for my "everyday" purse. I guess I'll just have to find something big to put in it. Or hang it as a decoration in my sewing room because I love looking at it. :)

The lining fabric is something I bought a few years ago, mainly because of its name! Jess at some point had started calling me Mumsy, and that's the name of the fabric. So being blue, it's actually "Mumsy in blue" (my favorite color). My intention for it was to make a housecoat (and be Mumsy in blue), but upon seeing it in person, I thought maybe it was a bit too crazy, so I opted for this fabric instead.

I was super pleased to find a zipper in my stash that matched one of the colors so well.....

..... and I used Erin's method from the Roundabout Hobo pattern to add a totally finished welt zipper pocket inside the bag. I had started this bag several weeks ago, but when Erin said she was writing her method into that pattern, I put this bag on hold until I could use it. I'm glad I waited, because it just makes for such a lovely finish!

The outer pockets are lined with a solid blue to match the zippers. I thought it'd be a little too crazy seeing those two prints together on the outside of the bag.

I also used the solid blue on the bottom, since I thought the white parts of the other fabric could get dirty and look awful pretty fast. I added purse feet to help keep the bottom clean, too.

Here's me-the-model again (my photo assistant, Miss Courtney, didn't come yesterday), to show you the size of the bag.

So there you have it - two completed bags in less than a week! Woohoo!