Penny Inn Wallet

The Penny Inn Wallet, designed by Christine of ChrisW Designs, is the Bag-of-the-Month Club bag for June and the final bag of the club for this year. While this is a wallet and not exactly a bag, it is packed full of pockets and you can add a wrist strap or a longer across-the-body strap too, if desired. I was one of the testers of this wallet, so that's why I have it finished already. Believe me this wallet took longer to make than most of the other bags I made. Christine has very detailed instructions as usual and so while this wallet may look very advanced, if you follow each step, you will see how several small pieces of fabric suddenly transforms into a lovely wallet.

I didn't have the flip closure and was going to use a twist lock closure I purchased months ago; but there was obviously something missing because I couldn't figure out how to attach the one part. There were no screws or rivets. When I contacted the seller she kept showing me photos and didn't understand me. So I will need to figure out an alternative on how to make them usable, if they indeed can be used. Otherwise it was a waste of money. I got them for a great deal and purchased quite a few of them too, thinking I would love using them. Since I hadn't used them before I didn't look closely enough at the photos, or I wouldn't have purchased them. Oh well live and learn. So I used a sew-on snap closure instead.

This wallet measures when closed: 8 ¼" wide x 4 3/8" high x 1 ½" deep.

Here is the Penny Inn Wallet I made~

I added the wrist strap to my wallet.

Because I used a magnetic snap, you can see the bump of it in the center there. I wanted to use the twist lock closure I had, but it was missing parts.

The back of the wallet.

The back of the wallet.

These are the parts of the twist lock closure I wanted to use. But nothing came with it to insert the twist piece on the left with the 2 holes. So I need to experiment and see if I can find rivets or screws or even sew it in place to see if it will work. No wonder I got a good prince on these as they were missing parts!

I sewed a large snap to close the wallet instead of using the flip lock closure.

There are oodles of credit card pockets.

More credit card pockets here and  three zippered pockets in all. Plus more slip pockets too.

  

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May Bag of the Month: Seneca Creek Bag

The May bag from the Bag-of-the-Month Club was designed by Betz White and the bag is called Seneca Creek Bag. It's a small bag that you can wear across your body or even as a fanny pack, if you make the strap adjustable and use swivel hooks. For me this bag is not large enough to carry my everyday things like sunglasses case, reading glasses in a case, a wallet, a pen, pad of paper, keys, tissues, etc. However, it's a great bag for those who only like to take a few things with them. As I went out on a walk to find some nice places to photograph my bag, I wore the bag and placed my camera inside. When I saw a tree or 2 that I thought I could use to take the photo, I took out the camera and placed the bag on the tree. You know what? This is the perfect size camera bag! If I had known that before making the bag, I might have used byAnnie's Soft and Stable stabilizer (or other similar stabilizer) for extra padding. I did use a non-fusible fleece and that works well too, as long as I don't drop the bag with the camera inside! But since I made the strap to wear across my body, the camera should stay nice and secure inside the bag.

I made a few minor changes to the bag. Instead of using D-rings and lobster swivel hooks, I decided to make my side tabs a bit longer and insert eyelets instead of the D-rings. I was going to use the swivel hooks too, but they kept swiveling the strap so that the wrong side of the strap was showing. I opted to just tie a double knot after inserting the strap through the eyelets. It worked well.

Another change I made was in sewing on the flap. There was just too much bulk to sew it on according to the instructions, so I did mine a bit differently and added 2 rows of top-stitching. I love the look of the front pocket and flap.

I also made my strap longer and didn't add the adjustable buckle. I measured how long of a strap I would need and added extra to knot the ends to the eyelets. I thought the measurements in the instructions for an adjustable strap was too short to wear across my body. I like the bag to lie at my hip. I am 5' 3" tall and since we are all different sizes and wear our bags differently, you need to make sure that the length of strap in the instructions will fit you. It's easy to measure across yourself with a tape measure to where you want the bag to lie.

Here's my version of the bag~

Front pocket and flap.

Side of the bag.

Inside the bag has a zippered pocket.

Back of the bag.

I made my strap to go across my body, but I didn't add an adjustable buckle. My strap is also longer than the instructions.

P.S. Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mothers out there. Have a wonderful day ladies.


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The Mamma Size Manhattan Bag

This is the April bag for the Bag-of-the-Month Club, called The Manhattan Bag and was designed by Janelle of Emmaline Bags. I love the shape of this bag. I wanted to do something fun on the flap, so I appliqued a flower to the flap and added a few embellishments. I really like how this bag came out and I like the size of the Mamma, which is the larger of the two, the other is the Miss size. Here is my version of the bag:

I used a Guatemalan style fabric for the bag.

The pink around the flap is a zipper. The flap unzips into a pocket. The pattern also included an eyeglasses case that you can make and Velcro into the flap pocket. I didn't make the case, but this pocket is also handy for holding other things too.

I created an appliqued flower for the flap. I used a variegated thread the stitch the flower in place. I added some orange paint to the pink flower, sewed an aqua felt piece that I dyed with Kool Aid, added a few embroidered touches and some buttons.

The back of the bag has a zippered pocket.

There is a slip pocket inside.

The strap is adjustable. Under the flap is a slip pocket. So there are 4 pockets in all.

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Companion Carpet Bag #2

I made another Companion Carpet Bag, which is the January 2015 Bag of the Month Club bag. The bag is designed by Samantha of Handmade by Mrs. H. I loved how my first bag came out and I decided to make my daughter a bag too. I used rather unconventional fabric for her bag. You see she bought  few yards of this pretty fabric that is kind of sheer. She had wanted to tack it above her bed to give her bedroom an Indian feeling. Well that never happened and as she was cleaning out stuff one day she gave me the fabric. I think there was more than 3 yards total. I didn't think much more about the fabric at the time. I wanted to make her a bag and I wanted to use fabric that I know she would like. She has her own tastes in things. Then an idea hit me. What if I fused some Shape Flex interfacing to the back of the fabric to make it handle like a regular fabric and to make it look less sheer. Then what if I added fleece to that and quilted it? So I did that and it worked. I created a beautiful bag using the fabric she likes. I had an organic green cotton fabric that was leftover from some pillowcases that I had made a few years ago, so I used that as the accent fabric for the handles and channel for the frame. I had another fabric in brown and green that I used for the lining of the bag. I showed the bag to her in progress and she seemed to like it. I just left it at her house this morning. She is going to an Irish Music Concert on St. Patrick's Day and what's better to wear to an Irish concert than a beautiful bag in a green print?

The fabric is brown, green and pink with metallic gold accents. I sewed on some green "handmade" buttons on the strap tabs.

Lining fabric and slip pockets.

The label I used, since this is for my daughter.

Back of the bag.

Inside the front slip pocket.

My daughter never used this bag. I sold it on 4/22/18.

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Hyacinth Bag

I made this Hyacinth Bag from the Bag-of-the-Month Club, for a friend of mine. She doesn't have internet access, so I feel safe posting this now before I give it to her. She loves African material and other African things, so I decided to use some fabrics that I had with African prints, although the fabric I used is not really made in Africa. I did a Zentangle of an African woman on the flap and painted the background of the beige fabric and then did a collage of appliques that I already had but never used before. I quilted it all to headliner foam. I decided after making this bag that I do not like using the headliner foam as much as I like using Soft and Stable, which is denser and has a nicer feel to it.

I changed a few things on this bag too. I didn't add the cash and credit card slots under the flap, instead I made a larger zippered pocket and a large slip pocket. I made the adjustable strap about 10" longer so that it was more adjustable to more lengths. I added a zipper tab to each end of the zipper so that there is something to grab on to when zipping and unzipping the bag, and centered the zipper too. Of course I made the flap somewhat artsy fartsy, LOL!!! Even though the flap did not turn out quite as I had imagined it, I hope my friend will like it.

I doodled the African woman with a fabric pen, painted the background with textures underneath the fabric, added fabric appliques all around, quilted it all and added a few buttons.

The back of the bag has a zippered pocket.

Inside the zippered bag is a divided slip pocket.

Side of the bag.

With the flap lifted up you can see another zippered pocket and one large slip pocket.

The zippered and slip pocket under the flap.

I sewed a few buttons on the flap too, including this handmade button. There is a heart button and a flower button too on the flap.

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The Companion Carpet Bag

I finally finished my Companion Carpet Bag, which is the January bag from the Bag-of-the-Month Club.  (You can still join if you click the link to find out about it) Normally I did sew most of the bag right away, but had to wait until the bag frames I ordered arrived. Meanwhile, my favorite sewing machine that can sew through thick layers, was in the repair shop for 3 weeks, so I didn't even start the February bag. Then I tweaked my back and couldn't sit long and was not in the mood to sew because of the back ache. Then to top it all off a dear sweet friend of mine passed away last week! I finally finished this bag the last day of February.

Okay onto the bag. I chose to use some 70's fabric that I had which I love. I had just enough fabric to make this bag. I accented the bag in black. I absolutely love this bag! Thanks to Samantha Hussey for not only designing a great looking bag, but so functional as well. I love how this bag opens up wide. The pattern has 2 sizes to choose from. The 8.5" and the 12". I chose the smaller bag and it's a perfect size. Like the other bag makers of this bag have said the hardest part was getting the frame back together once you slipped it into the fabric channels. I purchased a slightly different frame than most used, which has pins that screw in and it took me over 30 minutes trying to wrestle the second set into place, but I finally got it, whew! You can see other versions of this bag at Samantha's blog, showing the tester's versions here. Plus if you want to view even more bags from all the Bag-of-the-Month bags so far, you can go the the Flickr Pool here. Keep checking Flickr as more bags get added frequently and we still have 3 more bags from 3 more designers that we haven't even seen yet until they are released.

Okay now on to my photos~

The front of the bag. I added jumbo yellow rickrack instead of piping to the front pocket. The pocket in front closes with a magnetic snap. The pocket does cover up that large flower section of the fabric here on the front of the bag, but you can see the back of the bag with the flower in the photo below.

This is the bag of the bag. No pockets here, although you could add a zippered or another slip pocket if you want to. I love the look of this 70's fabric, which you can see better here on the back of the bag. 

The side view of the bag.

I made my own handles out of black cotton fabric, rather than the leather or faux leather handles that were suggested in the pattern. I sewed on jumbo black flower buttons at the base of the handles and added a smaller yellow flower button on top to add a bit more color and bling.

I found some cute charms that said handmade in the shape of a hand. So I added that on my bag too.

Inside the bag is where all my crap, useful things fit nicely. I made one pocket like the pocket on the front of the bag and divided it with a pen pocket. The other side I made a zippered pocket with a slip pocket in front of it. So in my bag there are a total of 6 pockets. But you can add more or less as you desire.

Another side view.

View of the front again with a bit the other side view too.

This bag sold on 4/22/18.

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