Quilting Adventures ~ The Friendly Store for Everyone Who Creates With Fabric!

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, I’m sure you’ve heard me sigh over the Birdwatcher Messenger bag from The New Handmade book by Cassie Barden.  I first ran into her at Quilt Market last fall, and fell in love with the book.  Not only is there this cool messenger bag in here (it’s on the cover), there’s also some other projects that have been calling my name.  I really love the two different sketchbook covers, the cuff, and the laptop sleeve.  There’s also some really great projects for beginners, as well as great gifts.

So, the deal that I made with my mom is that she would buy the fabric for me, as long as the bag is a shop sample.  However, I kinda need a new purse, and I really, really want this one.  She told me that I have to sell X number of copies before I can have it back.  Not only is it an awesome book, but everytime you buy one, you are leading me closer and closer to my purse!

I made my sample from the Wonderland fabric from Moda that just came in.  The outside of the bag is done with one of the twill weight prints we got.  The other three prints are just quilting weight.  I made a few adaptations – I added more pockets in the lining, I used fusible fleece instead of a stabilizer (which adds a lot of bulk to the seam, just a warning.  I ended up cutting it out of the seam allowances), I set the straps into the top seam of the bag instead of attaching them to the outside, and I didn’t do a closure.  Here’s some pictures of the completed bag:

Stop by and check it out in person!  At least until I sell those X number of copies. 

~Phoebe

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 4:56 pm by Phoebe and is filed under Customer's Show & Tell!, On Display. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.