Savannah Bag

 Christine of Chris W. Designs designs and sells pdf bag patterns online. (She also has a free pdf bag called the Coco Bag. If you download that bag, you will see how well she writes instructions). Chris also has a blog. The Savannah Bag is one of her designs. It's a large messenger style lap top bag with lots and lots of pockets! I told Christine I would blog about this bag after I made it, so here it is. This bag took me 5 days to make, including the time to choose fabrics and cut them out. I chose 2 large upholstery fabric samples that I had and then chose cotton fabrics that coordinated well with the colors in the upholstery fabric. I am very happy with the results, not only how this bag looks, but it does indeed hold my computer and other items too.

Christine's excellent instructions have lots of photos for visual sewers and well written text too. There were a lot of steps to making this bag, so it's not one you can whip together in a day and it's not for beginners either. It seems way too hard if you look at all the steps, but as long as you take each step one-at-a-time, it goes together really well. Of course I did make a goof because I'm a dumb s--t! silly person who didn't read the directions properly in one place. But even so, it worked out and you'd never know unless I tell you where to look, which I will as you look through the photos below.

The front of the Savannah Bag. I loved that swirl design of the upholstery fabric, so chose to  make it a focal point on the flap of the bag.

Pockets galore. There is the pen/pencil pocket as you can see. The turquoise fabric is 3 pockets. Okay now here is where I fess up to my dumb mistake. There is a zippered pocket that is supposed to show above the upholstery pocket. It's there, but you cannot see it, because I read the directions wrong and measured from a different place. The back of the bag also has a zippered pocket made the same way and of course I measured it the same as this pocket so it's a bit lower as well. At least I was consistent with my mistake. So I could have had 3 more pockets if I had sewn the zipper correctly because I would have sewn from the turquoise fabric up to the burgundy fabric. But I knew I couldn't do that, so I ended up with a large pocket in front of the zippered pocket. That's okay because I like the large pocket and in fact Chris even mentions that you can make one large pocket by not sewing or make 2 or 3 pockets by sewing to create the pockets. So whew, no need to rip out and start all over!

Inside view of my lap top and the cord to plug it in. It fits nicely in place.

Can see those pockets on the gusset too? I Love those. I keep my reading glasses in one of the gusset pockets.

Another inside view. There is another zippered divider pocket.

The back of the bag. This is where my zipper was positioned a bit lower than the instructions because of my mistake. But on the back of the bag it didn't really matter that much and I like it there. I made a zipper pull for the zipper using some glass beads and a Saguaro cactus charm. 

I really love the strap on the flap with the hook closure. It looks great and stays closed so nicely, keeping the contents of the bag secure. The carrying strap is just the right width and feels good on my shoulder. Plus, I like the adjustable strap when I want to wear the bag across my body, I can make the strap longer to fit me.

Okay so I have to show you what lap top bag I had been using before I made my lovely pretty Savannah bag.  This bag here is not so pretty.

There are lots of pockets in this bag too, which I like. And it holds my lap top just fine. But see those 2 large Velcro pieces? Well they are supposed to keep this bag closed. They stick when the bag is sitting there, but the minute you pick it up the Velcro pulls away and the flap is not attached anymore. I never liked that about this bag. 

You can see there are plenty of pockets.

Back of the bag has a pocket that Velcro closes too. While this pocket stays closed, I much prefer my new Savannah bag with the zippered pocket. This old bag has a padded strap, but it's not very comfortable wearing it. I think it's too wide.
I will give this old bag to my daughter if she wants/needs a place to keep her lap top as she never takes it outside her home.
I really love my new Savannah Bag so much more! Thanks for designing the fabulous Savannah Bag Christine!

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