Two Bags

 For the last 9 months, most Friday mornings I've gone to the Old Barn Workshop for jewellery classes.  The more times I go, the more stuff I seem to need to take with me.

My apron; A4 sketchbook and pencil; projects I'm currently working on; things I'd like to be working on; fire blanket (just a small piece to protect glass beads when heating the item they are threaded on); bottle of water; snack; car keys; wallet etc.

It was all getting a bit silly and only a few of those things fitted in my normal bag.  So I started designing a work bag in my head.  It would need to be big enough to hold everything, and it should be a purposeful bag so I don't have to empty everything out after each class.  It would have pockets for everything and be made from tough material.

 

So then I started looking for all the things I would need to make a bag.  (A lot of it came from Croft Mill.)  And as I did this I realised I would also like a smaller bag that would fit a book and my wallet for when I know I'll have some time to read while waiting, like when I give blood.

 

When classes finished for the year I knew what I'd be spending my Fridays on.

I started with the big work bag as I didn't mind too much if this wasn't perfect, and I could learn from my mistakes for the smaller bag.

 

With some very helpful blog posts from Debbie and Bethany I managed to create a lining from some material in my stash and match it up with an oiled cotton outer.  I just love the rainbox strap!  The inner middle pocket was probably the most complicated part and took a whole afternoon to make!

But it all came together into a useful sized bag that will hold all my kit.  I won't really know how good it is until I start using it when term starts again.

With one bag complete and lots of knowledge in my head, I jumped straight into the next one.

 

Much smaller than the last and meant to be used out and about, I wanted this one to be, if not perfect, at least pretty good.  This one was always meant to have yellow highlights, so I bought some brilliant yellow fabric for the lining.

With a better idea of how it would all fit together, and because it was smaller and didn't have a middle pocket, it went together very quickly.  I took some time to add some decoration to the front flap, and again added a rainbow strap, ending up with a sweet little bag that I look forward to using.

I could of course have bought a bag, or bought a pattern to work from, but where's the fun in that?  I had a couple of great days making and I'm really please with the end results.