Lazy Susan Makes TWO Lazy Girl Designs Bags…For HERSELF

Lazy Susan Makes Two Lazy Girl Designs Bags…For HERSELF!

Yes! You read that right/ I made TWO new purses for MYSELF! I sew garments almost exclusively for myself. But purses? There is always a birthday, a holiday, a getwell gift or a “just because” gift to make.

I keep fabrics in colors and motifs for my frequent gift receivers.

Blues and turquoise and some purple in colors of the sea. There will be shells, and sea glass and seahorses for Mary.

Coffee themes, writing implements and scripts, space motifs and seashells for my daughter Miss Melysse. She and her wonderful friend, Kathy have chosen their fabrics for the new Lexi bag. Well, I did send them a photo of the pattern and fabric choices.

Actually I have sewn four bags this summer:

One Candice bag with “word porn”.  NOOOO!, not THAT kind of porn. Get your mind out of the gutter! You know, lots of phrases and letters and punctuation marks. Beautiful things for us writers. And Melissa is a superb and passionate writer. I may blog about it later. It was for the Pattern Review (PR) handbag contest and a gift to my daughter. You can read that review herehttps://sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/157077

And another Candice Bag in tropical prints for moi!

But  today the subject at hand is The City Bag.

I have almost every Lazy Girl pattern. And I made The City Bag back in 2007 or 2008 for a friend. At the time I did not have any of the fancy fusible batting. And Chief Lazy Girl, Joan Hawley had not developed her line of wonderful fusibles and stiffeners. Even a fusible vinyl…I kid you not!

When I made the bag way back then, I first quilted a huge piece of fabric that would be later made into the body of the bag. I did not enjoy that process. Fast forward a decade and oh baby, the sewing world has changed. And that is why I made TWO City bags.

It all started with my friend Liz and her Kate Spade bag.

I was up in California for my grandson’s high school graduation. Liz and I hooked up with another friend in Santa Monica. She arrived carrying this gorgeous bag.

I love poppies. I love red. I love BIG bags.  Liz loves red! Poppies and big bags.

I just kept studying the bag and couldn’t wait to get home and knock it off.

I even knew what fabric I would use. I did not have any poppy fabric. Well I had made a new robe a few years back in a lovely gorgeous poppy print. I was visiting Liz then. She kept trying to convince me to leave it for her to “Borrow.” The robe was still too good to cut up.

But I did have this lovely double border print. The red ripe apples, luscious peaches and cheery cherries have the same effect as the red poppies. And the Kate Spade bag was a jumping off point, not a copycat thing.

I knew that I had purchased some of Joan’s fusible vinyl, and her Stiff Stuff that helps bags stand up. And two kinds of interfacing.

I made all kinds of mistakes in how I used her products. And I used three different items in this bag. It became really difficult to sew through. And the vinyl needed to have paper under it so it could slide. All of the issues were my lack of really paying attention to the directions. I even burned a hole in the vinyl! Again my own carelessness. But I placed some of the slick paper that came with the vinyl on top and just pressed and smoothed and now only I can see the wrinkle.

Joan’s instructions are always clearly written with very sharp photographs showing the important steps. Lazy Girl Patterns have evolved over time, and most are now PDF. Her Patterns are well worth the price! And NOOOO. I do not get a commission from her!

Joan applies her engineering background to her patterns and that skill shows.

A trademark of Kate Spade bags is the black and white pinstriped lining. I had no pinstriped fabric. But I did have black and white fabric.

So I made the lining from that. And the pockets are a scrap from another project, another black fabric with apple motif. When I was cutting the black and white stripe I thought that it would make a lovely bag as well. So I cut enough of the black and white to make a second bag.

I love to mix prints. And I will make changes to patterns just to use another print. And I like to use surprising colors for zippers.  It is just fun! And I do smile when I open my bags.

When I had the cut fabric laid out both the pocket pieces in top, I chalked lines around the items that would fit in the interior pockets. Then I stitched on those lines to make custom pockets.

Because of all the mistakes that I made with my Kate Spade knock off, and how difficult I had made it to sew through, I left off the exterior pocket. I had considered leaving off the zipper like the Spade tote bag. But I did not. And so I used a bright yellow zipper.

And I like the zipper assembly on the striped bag in the fish print with the white zipper and colorful tassel.

The zipper assemblies on both bags extend beyond the length of the bag body. They are supposed to be hand sewn to the bag and adorned with an interesting button. Joan, girlfriend, no way was I going to sew through my extra thick vinyl covered bag, and not the other. Instead I found some nice buttons and attached them with my trusty glue gun! Joan may be the chief Lazy Girl, but I am a close second!

This is getting long. I can hear you zzzzing away. So, leave me a comment and tune in for what grabs my attention next.

Love,

Susan