Lazy Susan Makes Some Lazy Girl Designs Bags!

I These little bags are cute, clever and addicting.

Lazy Girl Designs when Miss Melysse asked me to make her a special toe bag to take to a writer’s workshop in San Francisco. She was into pink. And she is always into coffee. That was 2007.

I made a spectacular bag with a pink body with sequins scattered on it, and the pockets were gorgeous, whimsical coffee cups. I loved it so much I made one for myself and carried it until it fell apart.

Since those days, I have been hopelessly addicted to these bags. Joan Hawley , a former engineer brings her ability to make things work to her pattern designs. They are all so clever, and easy to make with outstanding results even for a beginner.

In fact, I highly recommend using one or two of Joan’s bags as beginner projects so that they will overcome their fear of zippers and learn that zippers are a lovely design element, not a miserable task.

Joan has two Craftsy classes about zippers. I just enjoyed sewing along with Joan as she conducted her Zippered Bags with a Twist class. And as Joan said after I signed up for the c;lass:”Susan after all these years we are finally going to sew together!”

Disclaimer: I am a Craftsy affiliate. But I am writing here about  the class and my bag project to share my success.

The Sweetpea pods are little bags that can hold a whole lot of chocolate covered coffee beans. And Becca comes in two sizes and can be cosmetic bags or even a little clutch. Look how wide these little cuties can open! That’s a lotta chocolate…

Once you have made one, you will not want o stop!

Add the key fob, aptly named Fobio and you have a wristlet.

I have not made Fobio yet because I have to search La Paz to find the hardware. I am sure if I set the intention, and then go see them, my favorite craft store La Super will have what I need.

As part of the Craftsy class you get all three patterns and the written instructions. But the fun lies in watching the video lessons.  Joan takes you step by step through the process and talks about the best stitch length and presser foot. She gives you hints all the way through the class. Joan is ever so frugal.  From my very first bag, the Town Purse through to today, Joan reminds you to save pieces you  have just cut away for later use.  And so she does with the usable lengths of chopped off zipper. The pull tab on Becca is part of a zipper.

One of Joan’s favorite sayings is “Close enough is good enough.” She does not expect perfection. And most people would not notice it your bags are not perfect.  Joan gives you little hints how to correct or hide  mistakes.

And in this class you will discover how easy it is to work with zippers and to change the zipper pull or have multiple zipper pulls all in different colors. I never thought of zipper pulls as jewelry. But when the color is deliberately chosen to blend or contrast, they become jewels. I love these little bags, and I love changing out zipper pulls. Look at these zipper pulls:

And it was very satisfying to be able to use my local, Mexican made zippers. I was not sure they would be up to the job. But they were. I feel so virtuous when I can use local goods. And it saves me a bundle of dinero  as well.

One of her little practices is to save the snippets of zipper that are removed as part of her ingenious zipper tricks. So she has a fabric bowl full of the ends of zippers. She calls it her Victory Bowl. Meaning that she is the victor over the zipper.  I love the idea. And it is colorful!

I have started my own Victory Bowl, well cup. I am using a glass  made in Italy espresso cup to hold my victory pieces.

The fabric that I used for the Becca Bag is my extra-special, super precious coffee cup fabric.. Becca is designed to use three different fabrics to achieve the look. But I used a piece of my coffee cup fabric it is a border print so it looks like many different fabrics.. I did not plan it right and the coffee cups are partially hidden. So I must do a little better with the fussy cutting next time around. I did some decorative stitching on the blue and the green stripes.

Miss Melysse commented on my Instagram post that she was my Favorite daughter (only) that she did not have either of those bags in her collection and her birthday was in 55 days…

Here is a snippet of the border print fabric and a  video of  my fabulous fabric. I have hardly any left and it is no longer available. I cannot move on to other coffee-themed fabric. Oh I have some, but they just do not light my fire.