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. 

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. 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.

The bag measures 8" wide x 6" high.

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.  

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 as it doesn't put stress on the body (especially a shoulder) and the strap can be removed and carried as a clutch or make a wrist strap and carry that way too on occasion. 

I listed this bag for sale in my PayHip Shop with special pricing for a limited time only.

Here is the front of the bag.

Side view.

Back side of bag.

Flap up showing the front of the bag.

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

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!

Check this out in my PayHip Shop. Limited time special price. Thanks for looking.

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The Bangle Dangle Cross Body Bag & Wristlet

This Bangle Dangle bag was a fun sew. ChrisW Designs is the designer of this bag and Christine always has excellent instructions! This bag can be worn cross body or used as a wristlet. The hooks on the straps make it interchangeable.

For this bag I tested, I chose a pretty floral fabric for the flap and repeated it in part of the strap that I pieced together. I paired it with a nice blue print that reads more solid from a distance. The bag closes with a twist lock closure. Other features of this bag are a back zippered pocket, an inside zipper divided pocket that divides the bag inside in half, another zipper pocket inside, as well as a card pocket for easy access to your credit card or ID.

This is a minimalist style bag for those who like to carry just a few essentials. It's such a sweet style and lightweight too.

Finished Size is Approx. 24cm W (at the widest point, 20cm at the base) X 14cm H X 7.5cm D
(9 ½” W (at the widest point, 8” at the base) X 5 ½” H X 3” D)

The twist lock closure.

The divided zipper pocket inside and behind it another zipper pocket and in front the credit card/ID card pocket.

Here is a closer look at the card pocket with my Driver's license in the pocket.

The back has a zipper pocket too. Great pocket for your phone.

And such a pretty bottom, lol!

Be sure to join ChrisW Designs newsletter to hear about her new pattern releases, any sales that she has and lots of eye candy inspiration from people making her bags that were shared on Facebook & Instagram. You can join her bag groups to share your own CWD creations too.

See the testers versions here.

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Serendipity Hip Cross Body Bag in Paris Print & Black Faux Cork

This was a custom order I recently finished. At the craft show I did last week another crafter saw my purses & bags and liked the Paris fabric print on one bag, but wanted a different bag made. She wanted a snap closure and saw a bag I made with a flap that had a magnetic closure and wanted that. She like the style of the Serendipity Hip bag, but just wanted quicker access without a zipper closure. Everyone is different and that is why I prefer to do custom orders so the customer can choose the things they prefer to have. 

A lot of people prefer zipper closures. I like both snaps and zippers myself, but I prefer zippers that sit one top of the bag and are not recessed. I find recessed zippers harder to access and harder to see what is inside the bag, but some people love them, so it's great there is something for everyone. I also like snap closures with or without a flap. How about you? Do you have a preference on a bag closure?

I think this bag turned out great! I love this fabric combination together. There is something about Paris print fabric I just love. I think I love that most Paris fabric I have seen has written text on it and the word Paris or France or both on it and is usually in a collage style of some kind and of course the Eiffel Tower, which is a fabulous structure too. All those things are what I like, so maybe that is why I am drawn to Paris print fabric. I think I would love other cities too if they printed fabric in a similar way.

An Eiffel Tower charm on the zipper pull I made for this bag.

Inside the bag I added a zipper pocket and a slip pocket. 

The bag of the bag.

Instead of adding credit card pockets inside the purse, I prefer adding a little wallet instead, because making it removeable is better in my opinion.

There are 3 card pockets and the back pocket is deeper to allow for cash folded in half. Each pocket can hold more than one card too.

The matching set.

Above the exterior zipper pocket is a pocket with a separate phone pocket.

The exterior zipper pocket, opened.

The Eiffel Tower zipper pull and side view.

Inside view of the 2 pockets with the little wallet in the slip pocket.

Another look at the phone pocket from the wearer's perspective.

This bag is a great style bag packed with great features, whether it closes with a zipper or a flap with a snap or a snap alone, it is a great size for most women who don't want to carry a ton of stuff. It is also great with a curved top or a straight across top. I have made many modifications to this great bag pattern by ChrisW Designs on this one and a lot of past makes of Serendipity Hip bags too.

Let me know if you would like me to make you a custom Serendipity Hip Cross Body bag and what modifications, if any, that you would like. You can search in the search box located on the right side by typing in Serendipity Hip to see all the past bags in this style that I have made. They sure can look different depending on the fabric chosen.

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Mayla Little Bucket Bag

I have been wanting to make this Mayla Bucket Bag for a long time. It's a free pattern from RLR Creations. It looked so cute, but I found it was a very small bag and a bit fiddly to sew in places. I made this a few months ago and sold it in the local gift shop in October.

It calls for using Decor Bond fusible interfacing, so I used it, but I do not like that interfacing because it wrinkles too much and you cannot even steam the wrinkles out. No no more bags will be made using Decor Bond.

There is an outside zippered pocket as well and an interior slip pocket, but for such a small bag I thought it was a bit overkill to have an interior pocket. Anything you might put inside that pocket (other than a flat piece of paper or something similar) would take up much needed space. There is not a lot of room inside to carry much. My wallet was too large, my reading and sunglasses cases didn't fit either. So unless you have a tiny wallet, you could use this bag for carry that, a cell phone and keys and not much else. I know there are women who love small bags, but unfortunately I am not one of them. Just my eyeglass cases alone take up space and so I need something large enough for those and a wallet and keys.

My conclusion is that I wouldn't make this bag again. While it is very cute, unless I enlarged it considerably, it just wouldn't be worth the effort to make another one. There are far too many other bags out there that I enjoy making better. I am glad I made it and saw that it was something I would not repeat again though. So onward and upward to making another bag on my "to make" list.

The back has a zippered pocket.

Inside is a slip pocket that I divided with 2 pen pockets.

Closes with a magnetic snap.

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3 Serendipity Hip Bags with Changes

I wanted to experiment a little with making the Serendipity Hip bag (by ChrisW Designs), so I changed some things and made 3 separate bags with different changes to see how they would look.

The first Serendipity Hip I wanted to make into a dog walking bag with a pocket for pulling out a plastic doodle bag. That worked out nicely. (I don't even have a dog though, lol). This bag has SOLD.

I had a small piece of this fabric with women walking dogs and so this was the perfect choice for this version of the Serendipity Hip bag.

The back of the bag.

Pretty floral for the lining. There are credit card slots sewn into this bag and a zippered pocket.

From the outside looking down there is a slip pocket with a phone pocket inside.

In front of the slip/phone pocket is a zippered pocket on the bag front too. This is the pocket where you would put the plastic doggie doodle bags and then pull one at a time out of the grommet hole I created as my change.

The large grommet is where you would pull out the doggie doodle bags from. You can see the floral lining.

I used a clear grommet.

Zipper pulls for the zippered pocket and the main zipper closure on top.

Next I made another Serendipity Hip with a magnetic snap closure instead of a zippered closure. While I like this with a snap closure, I am not sure it looks as neat as I would like it to. Maybe it was my sewing that made the curved top a bit wonky? Still it came out cute. This bag has SOLD.

The credit card slots inside the bag with a zippered pocket above.

The slip pocket with the phone pocket.

Back of the bag.

The last one I decided to make a straight top instead of the curved top. There are a lot of similar looking bags out there with straight tops, but I like all the pocket features inside and out of the Serendipity Hip much better than others I have seen. This bag has SOLD.

Back of bag.

Inside credit card slots and zippered pocket.

Slip pocket and phone pocket.

So there you have it. Three looks from the same bag pattern. Do you have a favorite? I definitely know the curved top is what makes this bag more appealing visually, but the straight one is a bit easier to sew, although the curved top is really not all that difficult to sew.

(All three of these bags have sold).
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