Last week one on my sons’ friends had her 3rd birthday. I decided that as a gift I would make her a bag set. After all what little girl doesn’t love a bag to store things in. I had chosen some dusky pink fabric I had picked up recently in Ikea as my main fabric and pulled out a few fabrics from the Gypsy line by Pillow and Maxfied for Michael Miller fabrics to work with as I created. As is so often the case when I sew, I started without a defintie pattern and just created very much as I went.
The first thing I did was to cut out the body of the bag and attach a beautiful big glittery L to what would be the front. I used a deep pink glitter iron-on foil that my husband cut to shape using the Silhouette Cameo.
I decided to go with a very simple design – one rectangle of material foled in half, seamed up each side with boxed corners added for shape. I repeated the same design for the lining, adding a pocket to the back panel. I used the White Gypsy Paisley as the lining for the bag and the pink version of the fabric to line the handles and closing strap.
I decided on a magnetic clasp as I reckoned this would be the easiest to open. However, given the strength of the magnet in the clasp I used this may not have been the best of ideas in hindsight. Next time I use one of these clasps I think that I’ll attach the top part of the clasp within the flap rather than just sewing it on top as I did this time. For both the clasp strap and the handles I reversed the fabrics using the main bag fabric on the underneath and the lining fabric on top for a pop of colour.
As a little extra design I covered a large button with some Pink Jumbo Gypsy Gingham to which I had attached a smaller glittery L, and then hung this off the bag with some pink cording.
I then went on to make one little extra, a small zippered pouch that can be stored within the bag or just used on it’s own, perfect for storing a little girls trinkets.
I used the Pink Gypsy Paisley as the outer fabric, Pink Jumbo Gypsy Gingham for the lining and a nice easy to open chunky white zip. As one final extra I put a couple of matching bracelt and necklace sets inside the pouch.
The overall end result is what I think is quite the perfect gift for a lovely little girl.
They’re really cute, perfect for all those girly things that just HAVE to be carried around! And well done to hubby for getting in on the crafty action! 🙂