The Allure Bag Reduced Size

I made another Allure Bag  (ChrisW Designs pattern), but I reduced the size to 85% and I love smaller size soooo much better!

I made several changes to the bag too. First of all I used all cotton fabric. I didn't like the vinyl in my first Allure and so much prefer to sew with cotton fabric. Can't afford to buy real cork and have no place to store it and besides I need to use up the tons of cotton fabric I already have on hand. I used Uncorked by Windham Fabrics for the accent fabric on this bag and it looks so much like real cork, I bet I fooled you! It's  less costly too than the real thing.

Other changes I made besides the reduced size and using all cotton, was no zipper pocket on the flap. While that zipper looks nice, it's not only an extra few steps and more cost, I just cannot see putting anything inside that pocket unless it's something flat like a grocery list. Anything more dimensional would end up causing the flap to have an unsightly bulge. Perhaps it's more decorative than useful? I am more about being useful, so no zippered pocket on the flap for me, and especially now that I reduced the bag that zippered pocket would have been too small for anything anyhow. Not to mention, since I am using cotton and not real cork or vinyl, I wouldn't be able to add that pretty accent around the zipper. You can click on the link above to see what I mean when you see Christine's bag and the other tester bags.

I also did not add any Decovil interfacing to my bag. I did add a base of Peltex (pattern calls for regular Decovil for the base, but I still have Peltex to use up). But I didn't think I needed to add Decovil to the flap or body, since I used woven interfacing and foam. I like the feel of this Allure better without the Peltex that I used for the full sized Allure I made.

In order to use the uncorked fabric, I fused fusible web to the back of the flap and body accents and fused in place and then sewed a blanket stitch where it would show (not in the seams). I added a seam allowance to the uncorked flap accent on the outer edges. I had thought about doing this as I was testing the first Allure, but knew I would do it on the next Allure I made. Since the test bag was rather large, I knew I wanted to reduce the size and I just love this reduced size much better for me to use and to make more to sell too.

The hardest part now of making this bag is adding the rivets through the strap tabs and the thickness of the body of the bag at the sides. Love the look, but may experiment on the next Allure and make strap tabs that don't attach to the sides outside. I am going to cut out my next Allure this morning. Another one using uncorked fabric in black and a different main fabric.

Batik fabric paired with Uncorked fabric.

Purse feet added to the bottom of the bag. See how that looks like real cork?

The back of the bag,

Christine's signature phone pocket on the upper back of the bag. Since I have no phone, it's great for my keys.

I blanket stitched the uncorked fabric to the main fabric here.

Inside has a zippered pocket and I added a slip pocket across from the zippered pocket.

Here is my slip pocket with a pen pocket. I experimented and sewed some fold over elastic to the side edges. I only had bright elastic colors. It worked well, just wish I had a better color to match.

An adjustable strap to wear on your shoulder or across your body.

Strap tab with 3 rivets. You can see The Allure's pretty side too.

I also used a magnetic snap closure, rather than a twist lock or flip lock closure. While I love the look of those closures, for me personally it's more about function and ease of being able to open my bag fast and easy without fiddling with those other closures with moving parts. Besides, since those other closures do have moving parts, it make me wonder if they ever break? Had one twist lock break on me, but might have been my own fault as I was not untwisting it to open it and reached in the side of a bag and the spring part broke. So yes they can break, but also you shouldn't get into a bag without untwisting the lock first! After that happened, I knew I preferred magnetic snaps or zippers as closures. It keeps it simple for me not to have so many different kinds of hardware closures on hand too.

Allure's pretty backside.

And here they both are for a side-to-side comparison. The original size Allure on the left with vinyl accents and the reduced to 85% Allure on the right with Uncorked cotton accents. See the size difference? The original Allure is a large bag and the smaller version I would say is a medium sized bag. 

 I measured my Allure Bags and the original bag is nearly 10 3/4" tall x 16" wide at the widest point measuring from side seam to side seam x 6" deep x 10 3/4:" across the base.

The reduced Allure measures 9" tall x 13" wide at the widest point measuring from side seam to side seam x 5" deep x nearly 9" across the base.

Both of these bags have SOLD.
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