Girlfriend Cross Body Bag with Decorative Stitches Flap

I wanted to make a bag with a flap and stitch decorative machine stitches and added rickrack and embellishments. I have made many flaps like this before, but thought I would make this one for myself as I am wanting to use smaller bags nowadays. 

This is the Girlfriend Bag by Imazz Patterns. I tested this bag years and years ago for Imazz. It can be made as a clutch, wristlet or cross body bag. At that time this bag was too small of a bag for what I carried then, but now I try not to carry too much, unless I am traveling or hiking and need more stuff with me. Imazz really liked the Girlfriend Bag that I tested and she even has photos of that test bag I made on her Etsy Store. Click the link above and see a few Girlfriend Bags, including mine.

This time I wanted to make a more shapely flap on this one, so I made the flap longer and shaped the bottom of the flap like the in the photo below. I love how the flap turned out!

This bag is so cute. It has a zippered compartment pocket under the flap, a slip pocket with a zippered pocket inside it and a secret little slip pocket between the other 2 pockets. I really loved how it all came out. Then I started adding my items into the bag and it started to bulge and at first it didn't look that good to me. I suppose to keep the cute flat shape the bag has, you cannot add anything with much dimension to it. So at first I was disappointed when I had my stuff inside the bag.  I used it anyway and the more I used it the more I really began to like the bag and I stopped thinking about the way it looked and more about how it performed. 

I love the separate places to put things inside, I love the flap (with or without the way I shaped it and decorated it), I love the lighter feel of this bag when I carry it as it doesn't put stress on my body (especially my shoulder) and I could removed the strap and either carry as a clutch or make a wrist strap and carry that way too on occasion. 

So I wanted to share the photos of this bag with you and point out when the bag was empty or had stuff inside, so you can see the way it looks each way. If you carry a ton with you, then this style might not work for you, but if you carry a few basics, then it would be a great bag for you to make and use or buy a custom made one from me or another bag maker, if you don't sew bags yourself. 

Here is the front of the bag when empty.

 

Here I added some things inside it and you can see it bulges out a bit.

Side view when empty is flat.

Side view when filled with stuff pushes the bag out a bit.

Back side of bag when empty.

Back side of bag when filled with items.

Flap up showing the front of the bag when empty.

Flap up showing the front of bag when filled with items.

Looking down inside of the empty bag. Here you see the front zippered pocket, the back slip pocket with a zippered pocket inside of it and the hidden center slip pocket is quite hidden in this photo.

Looking down inside the bag with a few items inside.

Looking down inside the empty bag with the zipper compartment pocket unzipped. The secret slip pocket is in between the zipper pocket in the front and the back slip pocket.

Looking into the bag with stuff filled inside it and you can see my car key in the hidden secret slip pocket in the middle.

To get a better look at that hidden secret slip pocket, I used my lip balm to keep the pocket opened up

 for the photo. Say "ahh". By the way that is great lip balm!!! Comes in lots of flavors too. I like the grapefruit flavor the best and this lime flavor a second best and it's made right here in New Mexico too, in Santa Fe! Yay!

So what do you think about how the bag looks when it has stuff inside? 

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