Ava Hip Bag (Pattern by All Sew Petite)

Monika of All Sew Petite Patterns has designed this fabulous hip bag, called Ava Hip Bag. It is a great looking bag as well as being really functional. It can be worn as a sling across your front or back, a cross body or a waist/hip bag too. 

Ava has lots of space too! 4 zippered pockets: a zippered main closure, a front zippered pocket, a back zippered pocket, an inside zipper pocket which is great for cash or coins or both, plus credit card slots/pockets too inside, so no need to carry a wallet!

Ava measures 14" wide x 7 1/2" high x 4 3/4" deep. 

Ava pdf pattern is on sale at 30% off, no code is needed, so grab yours now while it is on sale. Sale is for 72 hours only! Monika is in the UK, so make sure you get it before the 72 hours are up. Monika also has a video tutorial so you can sew along with her making the Ava Hip Bag. 

I love this brown batik fabric with the Southwest turquoise turtles and thought it was perfect for this bag. The top zipper opens to the main bag compartment and the bottom zipper is a pocket for hold your easy access stuff like keys.

I chose to add one zipper pull for each zipper, rather than 2 zipper pulls. I find it is just as easy to pull one pull around than to have to zip/unzip one pull in each direction, which seems more fiddly to do for me. Some testers did add 2 zipper pulls and some did not. The double pulls do look nice when centered, but knowing me, I will never get them centered when using the bag 😜😂. To each her own.

Here I slung it over the chair to mimic how it would look wearing as a sling on your front or back. 

The back has a zipper pocket with an overlay. I unzipped it here. 

The back side with the zipper pocket with an overlay. 

Front pocket unzipped.

Inside the main compartment are card pocket slots and a zippered pocket to hold your cash and coins, since you don't need to carry a wallet (unless you want to carry a wallet) as this is like a built in wallet. Plus, there is still room to hold other items as well, like a glasses case and a fold up shopping bag or whatever you like to carry.

The top main zipper unzipped.

I have been using this bag since I tested it. I prefer to wear mine as a sling. If you want to make as a hip bag that converts to a sling bag, you really need to make 2 adjustable straps with swivel hook attachments so you can adjust one shorter strap as a waist bag and a longer adjustable to wear as a sling bag.

Oh, and be sure to check out the Tester's Bags too so you can see how different they look in different fabric, colors and materials used. Scroll down to see tester's bags. Mine is the first bag shown.

I love this bag to wear as a sling bag so much that I have been using it a lot since I made it. I am keeping this one for me!!!

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Portable Pockets a New Pattern From Around the Bobbin

Hello my sweet friends and followers, Around the Bobbin has just released a new pattern called Portable Pockets and I was delighted I was able to test this one. Or should I say three as the pattern includes 3 sizes.

If you pop over to Lisa's Blog, you will not only see all the tester's versions of Portable Pockets, but Lisa lists lots of ways you can use these adorable zipper pouches. I might also add to her list of 12 suggestions, that I would use a Portable Pocket or 2 to hold some of my knitting tools to be easily found in my larger knitting bag. 

Lisa also includes Bonus instructions for adding a waist strap to the large size pouch to turn it into a waist bag too. Or you could add a wrist strap or a cross body strap if you want to also. Such a versatile little bag(s)!

Plus the pattern is on sale for a 30% discount, use the coupon code PP30.

The coupon code is good now through Sunday, Oct. 23rd, midnight CST.  

Here are my 3 Portable Pouches in Batik fabrics inside and out, plus there are mesh pockets on the back of the pouches too!

Small-medium-large Portable Pockets, each with a zipper pocket on the front. You can add a keyring if you like to the tab on the left size, which I did on the small size.

I love this batik fabric and I made each size with a different colored zipper that picks up the colors of the batik print.

The back sides of each Portable Pocket have a mesh pocket that is divided in half.

 For the small size, I added a Kam snap instead of dividing the pocket as I thought it would be too fiddly and too small to get your fingers in those pockets in order to get out what was placed inside, so by adding the snap, the pocket can open fully to retrieve the item(s) inside the small size mesh pocket.

Interior batik fabric.

And when not in use, they nest inside of the larger Portable Pocket.

I know I will find lots of useful ways to use these Portable Pockets. They are quick and easy to make too. I cut all 3 and sewed each step one after the other so all 3 were done at the same time. 

Happy Sewing!

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4 Matching Zip & Clip Bags

Hello lovely flowers! I was commissioned to make the Zip & Clip Bag and she wanted 4 of them for the women in her family, including herself. I showed her this floral fabric that I had that was bright and bold flowers (she wanted flowers) and she liked it. She wanted black for the main fabric and I used black denim.

The Floral fabric is something I have had for years and it's called, Celebracion, created by Kathy Hall. It's the Museum of New Mexico of International Folk Art, by Andover Fabrics. It was a perfect choice since we live here in New Mexico.

The bag pattern is the Zip & Clip from Around the Bobbin. It's a small minimalist style bag with lots of pockets! I used webbing for the straps in black.

It can be worn as a cross body bag, shoulder bag or a waist bag, all by adjusting the strap. 

The floral print is large and packs a punch. So when cutting the flaps, each flap has a different section of the print, making it not quite as identical to the rest.

I chose a different color for the linings to highlight each bag a bit differently. The front zipper pocket can hold a phone.

Looking down into a couple of the bags you can see a slip pocket with a narrow flap, that can hold a passport and across from that pocket is a zipper pocket.

The other 2 lining colors. Oh and when you unzip the inside zipper pocket, there are credit card pockets for placing your cards vertically. And because the pocket zips closed, those cards and cash are nice and secure.

This is a great bag for the minimalist or someone who doesn't carry a lot of things. Also great for travel when you only want to bring the essentials.

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Smelly Cat Hip/Waist/Fanny/Sling Bag

I made this Smelly Cat  waist bag, hip bag, fanny pack bag, sling bag or whatever the preferred term is for this style of bag, which is a pdf pattern by Sincerely Jen. The bag features a front envelope style pocket with a flap. Inside the front pocket there are 3 cards slots. The flap on the pocket closes with a magnetic snap. Above the front pocket is a zipper that opens to the inside of the bag. Inside is a zippered pocket and the main space has room to hold a few items. The waist strap is adjustable. The bag measures 16" wide x 6" high.

The bag can be worn around the waist, hips or as a sling over your should or across your body too. These kind of bags are great when you only need to take a few items with you. Great for hiking, walking, or when you wants your hands free. 

(This bag has Sold).

I added those plastic clips and adjuster rather than metal hooks because they are easier to use for this kind of bag. I also used nylon webbing for the strap.

Inside the main compartment. Zipper pocket inside too.

Front pocket with a magnetic snap closure.

3 Card slots in the front pocket, plus extra room in front.

You can wear this also as a sling or cross body bag.

And here are some Angelita Daisies in my garden. 

They are small flowers, but these daisies love the heat and are always blooming.

*FYI: All of Sincerely Jen's patterns are name after something that occurred on the old TV show Friends. Smelly Cat , was a song the character Phoebe sang. See video below.

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Sneaky Satchel Cross Body Bag & Matching Little Wallet

This is the latest bag from ChrisW Designs, called the Sneaky Satchel, and is the second bag in the Minimise to Maximise Collection. Why is it sneaky you might ask? Well you can wear it as a cross body bag, or shorten the straps to wear on your shoulder, or remove the strap and slip it through the back and wear it as a fanny pack, bum bag,/waist bag. hip bag (or whatever the correct term it is these days). I will point out the features in captions under each photo, so you can see what I am referring to.

This is a video course, which is so popular these days as you can sew along with Christine and you feel like you just got a private lesson.

Visit here to see all the tester's bags.

Here is the bag front, which has a flap with a magnetic closure. You can see the strap clips on to the D-rings at the top sides to wear as a cross body bag or use the adjustable slider to shorten the strap to wear it on your shoulder.

I added a label on the flap.

I made a little wallet to match this Sneaky Satchel.

On the back of the bag is a zipper pocket and a sneaky compartment that is open on the sides, which you will see better in the side view in another photo below.

The inside of the wallet. I like to make matching little wallets to include in the bags that I sell.

Inside the bag has a zippered pocket.

Okay without a model it was really hard to capture that back sneaky part, which I placed a rolled up paper through the back part. This slide through back can be a great place to slide your sweater or a scarf through when the weather warms up, so you can wear your bag and not have to carry your sweater. It is also the place where you can remove the strap and slide it through the back opening to wear as a waist bag. 

Here is the back view again with the rolled paper inserted through the back.

Again, since I had no model, I used my larger flower pot to hook the strap around it's "waist", lol!

Side view showing how the waist bag is worn.

Larger photo showing the waist bag being worn around the flower pot waist, lol!

I needed to take more photos for Christine, because the ones above my camera setting was set for a different size and they weren't clear enough. So I took more photos and I hope you like these too.

I love this train fabric print and I paired it with a gray faux cork fabric (looks like cork, but it's cotton). This would be the perfect bag to take on a train, don't you think? Or a bus, plane, boat too.

My flower pot is loving wearing this Sneaky Satchel as waist/hip bag.

If you want to make this bag, the video course is now available. It also comes with bulleted instructions for those who can remember the steps after viewing the video once and just want to read the steps. If you aren't receiving Christine's newsletter, then sign up for it and you will get a discount on all new releases, plus a free pdf for making the Coco Bag (I made a few modified version of Coco before).

For lots of inspiration, check out the tester versions of the Sneaky Satchel here or join the ChrisW Designs Facebook Group to see what other bag makers have made. Be sure you answer all 3 questions to get into the group. You can mention how you found out about the group, by mentioning my name or my blog (and that I am bag tester for Christine).

And the video course is here.

If you would like to purchase this Sneaky Satchel bag with the matching wallet that I made, please contact me.

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