A few years have past since I last wrote anything on this blog which was a new project at the time. I have just come back to it with motivation to get creative once more and share my creations with as many people as are interested!

It appears that I saved a draft post (this one) with only images of my bag and hadn’t written anything about it. As I have already explained… a few years have come and gone since then and I honestly couldn’t remember how the process was or even which magazine I followed for the instructions! Thankfully, it is fairly easy to search for these things on the web and I can tell you that the magazine article was in Love Sewing Magazine in issue 06 as I luckily found the issue on my bookshelf. The project was called Autumn Woods Shoulder Bag for a simple satchel-style bag. It is actually not available on the magazine website (I guess because it was too long ago: October 2014 I believe) but I did find the bag designer on Pinterest (Susan Dunlop of SusieDDesigns) and found her Etsy page with the pattern download for sale for those who are interested.

autumn-woods-shoulder-bag-by-susan-dunlop-in-love-sewing-magazine

I enjoyed making this bag and actually made a second version for a friend as she really liked mine when she saw it so I used colours she wanted instead and it looked great too! For my own bag, I decided to be brave and use my prized batik fabrics; which cost more than I care to remember, to buy as fat quarters. I had bought them a few years before but they are so beautiful that I was afraid to use them on a project in case I messed something up and ruined them! I feel a bit silly about it but I’m sure for any sewers out there, that you can understand my predicament!  I also had a black and white fabric I loved which I thought would contrast nicely used on the inside of the bag along with a plain black fabric for the inside pocket.

Batik Messenger Bag 16 Nov 14

Below you can see the 3 batik prints I used for the outer bag, flap and buckle strap as well as the inner lining fabric. Here I had begun the sewing and had pinned the buckle strap to the flap.

Batik Messenger Bag 18 Nov 14

Batik Messenger Bag 19 Nov 14

For my own bag, I decided to use a magnetic clasp rather than a buckle as the fabric wasn’t particularly tick, even with interfacing and I didn’t really want a plastic buckle. As the metal buckles I bought were so heavy, I decided that a discrete magnetic clasp would be better and you can see the clasp below. Batik Bag final 3

As you can see below, the finished bag has no visible closing method and so remains fairly simple in its design.

Batik Bag final

Here is a photo of the bag I made for a commission from my friend using the same pattern but I used the metal buckle for the second bag as you can see below. I also only used 2 prints for the outer bag so the buckle strap matched the main bag.

If you are interested in having any type of bag made for yourself or a friend, please feel free to contact me with your requirements on my Facebook Page.