As a bag tester for Shamballa Bags, Sammy (the designer of the bags) has her testers choose a number from 1 to whatever (usually about 21) then she randomly picks a number and whoever chose that number gets the next bag named after them. Well this time Sammy did the number picking, but it was to choose a name for a secret bag pattern that she was selling for a low price for a certain number of days. You didn't know what the bag looked like and the pdf pattern would be emailed to those who pre-purchased the pattern.
Well I was the lucky one who got chosen to name this bag (I didn't test this bag though). I asked Sammy if it should be a female name too and she said yes, so I named it after my beautiful daughter, Amber. The pattern will be released to anyone wanting to purchase it on October 15, which just so happens to be my Amber's birthday, so it was meant to be, lol!
Since Amber my daughter, was born in the Pacific Northwest, I thought I would use the rest of this NW bear fabric with the NW Native Indian motif that my sister had gifted me years ago. I made a table runner out of the fabric and had just enough left to make the
Amber Bag.
If you click on the link for the
tester's Amber Bags, you will see that there should have been two front pockets with flaps. Well I started out making the flaps in that red accent color, but messed something up and didn't have enough red fabric to do them over. So I decided to just make one large divided slip pocket and accent the top in red instead. I was able to just fussy cut the last of the bear fabric so that it fit in place on top of the print exactly (well almost, I see now that one bear behind is a little off on the left there, lol!)
My original plan was to have red pocket flaps on black pockets. I didn't have buckles, so I was going to do what I saw one of the testers do and add a rivet in the strap on the flap. While I do like the look of the pockets, I thought one divided slip pocket would be easier to access. I figured my daughter who is quite picky wouldn't even want this bag. I knew she wouldn't use it as a purse, but thought maybe as a weekend bag or carry on bag to have more things with her on the plane when she flies.
She finally came over a couple of days ago and I showed it to her and she did like it, but didn't need or want it. I know my daughter only too well. It is an easy bag to sew and as you can see the
tester's bags are all so different and great looking too.
Here is my Amber Bag version~
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| The Amber Bag with a divided slip pocket instead of two dimensional pockets with flaps. |
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| Side view. I didn't add any strap tabs on the sides for a cross body carrying strap. |
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| Back of the Amber Bag. |
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| Bears, bear paws and Native NW Indian motifs on the fabric. |
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| Roomy interior. The bear paw print accent was also leftover from the fabric that my sister gave me years ago and went with the bear fabric and she also gave me some totem pole fabric too, but of course I didn't use it on this bag. |
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Inside I added a zippered pocket.
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Here is what the Amber Bag is supposed to look like in case you didn't click on the link with the tester's bags~
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This is the Amber Bag made by designer Sammy Valencia of Shamballa Bags. See the cute front pockets? Since I do not sew in vinyl or leather, I was going to use fabric for the flaps and that's when I got my flap messed up because I didn't pay attention closely enough for the fabric version and got confused as to when to sew the strap and add the magnetic snap. I didn't have buckles anyhow, so I was going to put a rivet on the strap like one of the tester's did in her all fabric version. We all make mistakes from time-to-time.
Lovingly made in my Smoke Free, Perfume Free, Pet Free New Mexico home.
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