The Gracie Bags: 1 & 2

I had the pleasure of testing The Gracie Bag recently. Designed by Sammy Valencia of Shamballa Bags. Sammy is a newer designer and she sells her pdf patterns in both English and French versions.

Right away I knew I wanted to use some Frida Kahlo fabric for the front panel. It fit perfectly. I really love this bag! In fact I made 2 Frida versions of Gracie.

Here are my Gracie Bags, Frida Kahlo style!

Gracie has a zippered closure and I added a stacked button on the zipper tab for fun.

This is the back of Gracie. She has a pretty back, yes?

The zippered closure with a handmade charm.

Gracie is nice and roomy inside. See all the stuff she can hold. Plus there is a zippered pocket and a slip pocket too.

Next is Grace #2, another Frida on the front panel:

I made the top accent a different color on this Gracie and used a different Frida.

On the back of this one I added the accent and the tabs in the accent color.

A zippered pocket and a slip pocket inside. This one I didn't have a long enough zipper, so I added a magnetic snap closure and it is just as nice.

I should have dropped the snap down a bit more. Still it works well and I have been using this bag lately and love it.

I added the accent to the bottom of this one, mainly because I ran out of the other light fabric, lol!

Pop over to here to see all the tester Gracie Bags and to get the pattern. It's at a great price right now too!
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Ergonomic Bag

I've been finally getting around to trying some of the patterns that I bought years ago. I posted about a bag I made here and the problems with that bag itself and the problems with the instructions too. Then I decided to finally try making this Kidney-Shaped Ergonomic Shoulder Bag style bag from Angel Fire Designs. I purchased a similar style finished bag a few years ago from a local women who sells all kinds of bags. Hers was made using pre-quilted fabrics, so the bag is soft and it's sturdy enough too. The bag I made here is very stiff. The entire bag is made using Craft Fuse (a medium-weight fusible interfacing) that is fused to nearly every piece of fabric and in a couple of places the bag uses Wonder Under too (a paper-backed fusible web). This yields in a rather stiff bag. Personally, I'm not that thrilled about having that stiff of a bag, but I understand the reason for using Craft Fuse for adding body where it needs it in a bag. However, I would have preferred making this bag with quilted fabric that I either quilted myself or pre-quilted fabric and maybe some Craft Fuse in the gusset only.

After making the slanted pocket with the Velcro closure, I would have preferred to have this a zippered pocket instead.

I know we all have our own tastes in bags, quilts, etc. but this one just didn't float my boat. The idea is a good one, but so many things need to be changed for my taste. I see Angel Fire Designs has an updated version of this bag in a pear-shaped bag. But at $14.00 for the pattern (I think I got mine pattern for $12.00), I won't be making another one. There weren't enough clear photos to see what this bag looks like from different angles on the pattern either. The little photo on the back was too small to see and the colors of the bag didn't show up well like the cover photo did. It's only when I went to her website after I made my bag, that I found more color photos of the bag that would have helped me. So why wasn't that information written on the paper pattern? Something like: see my website for additional photos would have been oh so helpful to me, but who knew? Plus what about those people who purchase the pattern and don't have a computer? They wouldn't be able to see those photos and so why not include more and better photos on the pattern itself? The pattern is pricey enough, so how much more could it cost to add a few more photos? It's crazy the time we all spend making things, and when they don't turn out like we hope, I sometimes wonder why I don't just buy a ready made bag from a discount store. I could literally buy a nice bag for less than the cost of this pattern alone and when you think of the other costs like the fabric, interfacing, thread, Velcro, I could have bought 2 bags or one nicer more expensive bag from a better store, or called up the woman who made my ergonomic bag and bought another one.  Still, I enjoy making my own bags and other things because when you hit upon a good one that's a keeper, you will make several in different colors. With that said, I think I will go and make another of my favorite bag and this time I will enlarge it a bit because I sometimes like a larger bag.

So after making 2 bags recently from patterns that either the instructions had some problems or the bag itself did, it got my head ticking about having a section on my blog where I post The Good, the Bad & the Ugly about patterns that I and others have used. It would be about reviewing patterns that can be found in books, magazines, tutorials, paper patterns, online patterns, freebies, or purchased. They can be anything: quilts, bags, clothing, knitting, etc. Would anyone be interested in reading about such reviews? Would anyone like to contribute their opinions about items that they made from a particular pattern? Include photos of your item, and write a review that I can link to your blog from here. If you don't have a blog, please email me your review and I will post it for you. You can do this like how you would write review for a product purchased from Amazon or other places. Maybe by doing this, writers/designers of patterns will include what we want and write better patterns. I won't buy a pattern from the same designer again if the one I did purchase was poorly written. I would buy a pattern again from a designer who wrote really good detailed instructions and had lots of step-by-step photos or clear sketches. Most of us are visual and when I write patterns or tutorials to sell or for give for free, I include lots of photos and detailed instructions. I think you can tell a lot about a pattern writer by first seeing if they offer a free pattern or tutorial and make it before you purchase from them. If they write well, you will feel more confident in purchasing patterns from them, wouldn't you? I know I would.

If you would like to review something that you made, write a posting about it and include lots of information like:

• What did you like about the finished product and explain why
• Was anything poorly written or mistakes in the pattern?
• What didn't you like about the finished product and please explain why
• Where did you get the pattern from (a magazine, book, online purchase or online freebie, individual pattern, etc.)
• Would you buy again from this pattern writer?
• Did you make changes to the pattern? If so what were they?

If there is enough interest in pattern reviews from other bloggers, I will start a weekly or monthly Linky for it. What do you think? Would you contribute your reviews? Comment below or email me your thoughts. No one wants to waste their time (let alone money) making something that doesn't turn out well or can't make it correctly because of a poorly written pattern. This will help others avoid the bad patterns and help to find those who produce a really well done pattern.

Okay that said, this is the ergonomic shoulder bag I just made:

One side of the bag with the Velcro pocket.

The other side of the bag with the "sunglasses" pocket. Problem with this pocket is that my sunglasses case doesn't fit. Why? Well for starters this is a flat pocket and my sunglasses case is thick, so wouldn't you think that a pocket that is supposed to hold a dimensional object would have a dimensional pocket? You know a pocket that has a gusset or pleats so that the pocket can expand. I even made this pocket a bit taller, but of course that didn't help much.

Another pocket on the gusset. Above is a hook to hold keys. I like that feature for the keys.

Lining of the bag. I chose to use some millennium fabric I still had hanging around...hmm 12 years later. The directions do not give you exact placement of the interior pockets, so I ended up with the pencil/pen pocket up way too high. Since there is another pocket below the pencil/pen pocket, I wanted to make sure there would be room to add it above, but I didn't quite know how this would be when the bag was finished. I cannot really fit the pens into the pocket now. Might have been better to instruct placing the pencil/pen pocket below the horizontal pocket instead of the other way around as the instructions tell you. You cannot really see this pocket in the photo.

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Phlipphlap Bag: the Good & the Bad...

This is the front of the Philipphlap Bag I made this weekend. I chose all batiks because I love the bright colors. My favorites are the multi-color circle print on the black background and the turquoise print which is the long flap. I like the look of this bag.

The instructions say you can wear this bag as in the 1st photo, or flip the back flap to the front which I did in this photo. However, one of several problems with this pattern was they only had one photo of this bag and it was like the 1st photo in different fabrics of course. Since I did not really know how this bag would turn out looking, as this pattern did not provide adequate photos, I would have chosen another fabric for the back flap as shown this way it covers up my favorite colorful circle fabric.

This is back of the bag with the back flap and large turquoise pocket.

This is the back of the bag again, this time the back flap has been flipped to the front, so this is how it would look on the back of the bag without the back flap.

The purple front pocket is the optional cell phone pocket and this is the larger cell phone pocket. There is a choice of 2 sizes.

This is the inside of one of the bag sections. I chose a yellow lining and that is a pocket inside. The correct pocket placed in the correct place.

This is the inside of the other bag section. See that pocket on the bottom of the bag? This is where the instructions were incorrect. The instructions tell you to measure so many inches from the fabric edge and they warn you to make sure the opening of the pocket is placed correctly and show a diagram too. I made sure I placed this pocket and the other pocket too as instructed. I double and even tripled checked this placement. This bag starts out flat and then later it is folded up accordion style and sewn. So even after the instructions tell me to place the pockets like I did, this pocket came out in the middle of the bottom of the bag and the opening is upside down! Totally useless pocket and I can only rip it out as it cannot be fixed now. So much for their warnings because they were wrong.

 Like I mentioned above, I like the look of this bag, but I only placed my wallet, sunglasses in it's case, and a fabric pocket of tissues inside and it felt too heavy. It seems to wear better with the back flap to the front, but it hides my favorite fabric that way. It doesn't appear to hang well. The straps I made narrower because the instructions had you cut 3" wide straps to fit into narrow casing you make and no way would wide straps fit into such a narrow casing. The narrower straps I made still barely fit through the casing. I think one problem with this bag is that there is too much weight on the straps and placing anything in the bag adds to the weight. There is also a dowel in the casing to help stabilize the bag. This is the smaller version too. The larger version is supposed to hold a laptop. I cannot imagine it being sturdy enough to hold something that heavy, when this smaller bag doesn't seem to be properly balanced. Looks great when it's empty.
I wish I would have been able to see more photos before making this bag. So in case someone sees this posting and is going to make this bag, I hope this helps you. I also would like to add that the person who wrote this pattern should take note and include more photos of the finished product as well as correct the mistakes in this pattern. I looked up the company online, but there was no contact email information on their site. So I couldn't tell them about their mistakes in the instructions or give them my suggestions.

Desert Willow flowers. I took photos of the bags above in my desert willow and these are the flowers. This is a burgundy desert willow. We also have a pink desert willow too.

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Simple Bag/Purse

Simple bag I made. It's reversible if I want to turn it inside out, but I like the denim for the exterior.

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Tote Bag

This is a fabric bag that is styled like one of those plastic grocery bags. I've made one before in a different fabric. This fabric came this way with the stitched grid and already dyed. It is lined inside too.

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Teapot Quilt and Shopping Bag

I made this little quilt as a prize for my quilt guild's Spring Tea Party in May. I added some fortune cookie sayings on the quilt too. The teapot is stenciled.

I made this fabric shopping bag from a Simplicity pattern. It is modeled after a plastic shopping bag. The bag is lined as well. It may cost more to make than those cheap $1.00-$1.99 that all the stores are all selling now, but it looks better, will last longer & I made it! I was going to use this fabric to make an apron, but I didn't have enough of the fabric for an apron, so I decided make this bag instead. Pin It Now!