Another mesanger bag

I love giving the girls something handmade by me as a present.  So after constantly stealing her sisters messenger bags, I made Philippa her own Oliver + S messenger bag for her birthday.  She loves it, this bag goes with us everywhere.

Again like with Alannah's bag I used essentially homemade binding to attach a buckle to the bag.  Philippa loves having the buckle even though she is only able to close and not open it!

The fabric I used is super cute a upholstery weight fabric from a local store Creasphere.  The only catch is that it is a directional print which means if I cut the back/front flap in one piece either the front flap or the back would be upside down.  So I sewed a front flap and back together with a seam on the top fold.  To cover the seam and because I happened to have some super cute owl ribbon in  coordinating colours I decided to sew a strip of it across the seam.  The fabric was all fussy cut giving regard to the owl design of the fabric.

The lining was a combination of an aqua owl print called "on a Whim" by Amy Schimler and "Dot to Dot" in Coral from the Children at play line of fabric by Sarah Jane, both from my stash.  I also used the "Dot to Dot" for the buckle binding.  The rest of the bag binding is a Michael Miller "Ta Dot" in Breeze also from the stash.  Infact the whole bag was made from materials in my stash, some bits like the buckles and webbing used for the strap were stashed with thoughts of making more of these adorable bags.  As was the owl outer fabric, sorry Soul that was intended for your bag, promise yours will be just as awesome.

Oh and in case you were wondering the dress Philippa is wearing is a Felix dress that I made for Xanthe's 3rd birthday (pre Blog).  Using an out of print Sandi Henderson line of fabric.

Messenger Bags

I made Oliver + S Messenger Bags from Liesl Gibson's book Little Things to Sew for Xanthe and Alannah's Christmas presents.  As with all Oliver + S patterns I found it to be a great pattern, very straight forward to sew together with loads of tips and a detailed pattern.  There are lots of pieces but it came together quickly once the fiddly bits like the bias binding is made!  I used webbing tape for the straps to save time, but the pattern details how to make your own from fabric.

I made Xanthe's bag first.  As I was not really sure what to expect I made it exactly to pattern.  Using a very cute hedgehog linen fabric from a local fabric shop for the exterior and a mushroom print in her favourite colour for the lining.

For Alannah's bag I didn't want to alter the overall bag but did want to add a closure of some sort.  After looking around at other messenger bags, I decided on a simple plastic buckle and clip.  I made some extra slightly wider binding in blue and hid the joins in the binding.  It is the perfect closure nice and lightweight and easy to open for little fingers. I decided magnet closures would not work well with the front pockets which I didn't want to change, and Velcro would not have such a neat finish.

The outer fabric for Alannah's bag was a light weight striped denim I found at Ikea and the lining was also a mushroom print but in blue, Alannah's favourite colour.  The hearts were free drawn and machine appliqued on, all the spotty fabric was from Sarah Jane's, "Children at Play" line of fabric.  I used a plain black webbing for the strap but tarted it up a bit by sewing some red spotty ribbon around the center.

The girls love their bags and especially Alannah uses it all the time.  They also happen to be very similar in size to the little messenger bags that are used to take snack to Kindergarten here in our part of Switzerland.  So sometime before August I will try and make another one for Xanthe in a more Kindy friendly fabric and with a buckle.