I think I can call February and part of March a pattern testing whirlwind.
This is nice slouchy bag, and it really is a quick and easy sew. I traversed over to Tandy Leather to see what they had for larger cuts of leather. The pieces of this pattern are 17.5″ tall and 17″ wide, which requires quite a bit of cutting area. You would likely need 2 whole lambskins if you wanted a thinner leather. Not sure if you could even get that out of the thrifted jacket without a lot of extra seams. I found a Minelli side in chocolate brown, and *Lucky Me!* they had a sale going on for 40+% off. Plenty of area to make my cuts, but I was a little leary that it would be too thick around the zippered pocket. I really wanted this to work, though, so I gave it a go.
It is lined, so you have to make sure you have a matching lining.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do a zipper or a snap, but I ended up going with a zipper.
I also did the shorter shoulder strap. It is already a pretty big bag, so I didn’t want it hanging too low. It was the perfect length for me. It should only be two thicknesses of the leather. I glued it together, pounded it flat with a hammer and then sewed several lines of stitching.
The pattern doesn’t have any pictures, just diagrams, so that is a bit of a con if you aren’t used to making things without a consistent visual guide. It does actually have a pattern pieces for the rectangles, though, which I like. Otherwise, it really would be more of a tutorial than actual pattern.
I pounded down all the bulky seams with a hammer. It does let a bit of aggression out! You really need to pound down the center seam at the zipper pocket.
It also has some darts in the bottom of the bag. I hadn’t seen that before, but it brings the bottom in a bit. You will notice that my darts are different than the ones in the pattern, if you buy it. There were barely any pictures in the tester pattern, and the description was confusing, so I put them in the wrong spot. The darts are supposed to be on either side of the center seam and not in the center seam.
This leather is sooooo nice and soft and I like how it turned out. If I were to do it again, I would put tabs at the ends of the zipper to give it a nicer look and so it would close better.
Overall, this was a fairly simple bag to put together, and the pieces were great sizes. She put more detail in for the completed pattern, so I wouldn’t let my confusion for the tester version put you off. Tester versions are very rarely perfect.
I have another bag to show from a test that I made earlier in the month. She is releasing that one on Saturday (different bag designer from this one). I have also been working on a belt/pouch thing. I only started it in December! I am hoping to get that finished up (and OFF my table) this weekend at some point.
