A tale of two bags

I've been following along with the bag city bags sew along for two months and I've been loving it.

So far I've made three bags (in two months) and have learned so much!  The added bonus is that I've gotten to use up a bunch of scraps and 'orphaned' fabric that I might otherwise not have used. 

The first bag I made I already blogged about - the fireside bowl bag that I made in with the purple/ladybug fabric. 

As soon as I finished that bag I knew I wanted to make another for my youngest. Since her favorite color is green I did a search of my fabric database to find the right stuff. What I found was a little different and unexpected... A dark green suiting made of wool with a silver metallic thread running through it. 

I had originally bought it (on clearance for $2.99 from fabric.com) to make a skirt but after getting it home didn't really like it for that. But for a bag it was perfect. I also had some green lining material for the inside of the bag that matched perfectly. All I needed was the contrast. For that I dropped by walmart and found a green on green floral cotton that was perfect for $2. 

All together I think it made up into a really cute bag!

I made a few minor changes from the original design suggestions. 

First, I made piping for the trim instead of just using strips of fabric. I just cut bias strips out of the lining and sewed it around some cord I picked up

I love the way this looks and want to try piping all the seams on a bag sometime

I also skipped using hardware for the handle (which I made out of the wool) and just sewed it directly to the bag. And I made the interior pockets out of the wool too to add some interest to the inside. 

The best part of all is that my kiddo loves it

Now this months 'official' bag was a little different. It was called the go go bag. The pattern was an envelope style with a flap, closed with a metal swivel and two zipper pockets. 

I decided to make it out of zebra print twill scraps from the trench coat I'm working on, trimmed with black slipper satin. 

As I was figuring out what was available in my zipper stash, I found a hot pink one and that gave me the idea to do all the top stitching in pink. I then closed the bag with a hot pink button because I didn't want to spend the money on the special heard ware. The end result...

 Well, I think it's marvelous!  

If you are part of the sew along you might note that my accent piece looks a little different then the instructions.  That was a 'happy mistake' of sorts. When I put on the large accent it moved some while I was top stitching and wasn't centered anymore . No one would have probably noticed but me, but it bugged me. As I debated ripping out all the stitching I started playing with the second piece and discovered that by putting it at an angle not only did it hide that the bottom layer was askew but it added visual interest to the whole bag that really played along with the whole zebra print/black satin/ hot pink motif. 

The inside has two pockets. One with a zipper and one patch pocket. ( a design change by me. 

I also made the strap a little longer and eliminated the hardware and attached it directly to the bag. 

Perfect length for my body. 

I have to admit... I love love love this bag and it is now my every day purse. I have never been so happy to drag a purse around with me before!

The ladybug bag gets used daily too; to haul around my lunch and walking shoes. 

And so, all the makes together...