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