I bought this beautiful fabric print several years ago after seeing Liz make her Lombard Street Bag with it when we both were testing that bag for ChrisW Designs. I fell in love with it. Liz lives in Germany and I knew I hadn't seen anything like that here. So I did a search online and found it and emailed back and forth to see if I could buy metre of of it. I got the fabric and because with the cost of postage from Germany, it was rather expensive fabric, so I was afraid to cut into it for years. I wanted to make sure I made a bag that I knew was a good design first as well, because I didn't want to waste any of it. I only used a small amount of that fabric to make this bag, so I have enough left to make some more bags too.
I used the floral section of the bag only. There are birds and some dots too that I didn't cut into, so when I use that part of the fabric, it will look totally different. I also needed to use this fabric so that I was featuring the fabric to it's best. I didn't want half a bird showing just to use it. So I decided to make the small size retreat bag (Emmaline Bags), but without a frame in the bag and I made the bag taller and added strap tabs and straps too. The dark base of the bag is real wool material. I love how this one looks and yes I am keeping this one for myself.
I decided to take my bag on a location shoot around my yard, lol!
| I sewed some flower buttons on both zipper tab ends. |
| The back of the bag showing other faux wool flowers. |
| I made the inside fun by using 2 fabrics for the lining. A zippered pocket and a slip pocket too. |