Foldover bag

Sometimes you just need a quick project so you can feel like you accomplished something. That was the case a few months ago when I was in the middle of sewing a duffle bag (I just finished it, pictures coming soon). I needed a break!

My mom gave me a bunch of old zippers that might work for the duffle and one of them had this really cool pull on it. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite long enough to be the main zipper for the duffle. I thought about using it for an inside zipper pocket but I really wanted it to be on the outside of something.

Recently I found this on Skirt as Top and really liked it. Inspired by the remix tutorial on that post and also this at A Beautiful Mess. I wanted to make one with a contrast panel.

I used a fat quarter that I got on my bachelorette scavenger hunt, and the solid blue is from a skirt that was my grandmother's. (A few years ago I got a bunch of my grandma’s awesome vintage clothes, but she was tiny. I tried to figure out ways to alter them to fit me, but I've realized I just need to suck it up and use the awesome fabric for other things.) Lining is a scrap from a quilt I made a few years ago.

This was a super quick project, I think it took less than an hour.

A few days after I finished the clutch, my husband bought us tickets to go see Colin Meloy play at the Crystal Ballroom. I was going to need something smaller than my regular purse to carry just my phone, ID and lipstick. But I wanted my hands to be free also for clapping and drink holding. So I added a quick strap. I cut a wide strip from the blue fabric (I had to piece it in one place), folded the edges in and folded in half. Then I top stitched along the edge with a fun variegated blue thread. I sewed the strap on so that the bag could still fold over and just overlapped the ends under the fold.

Voila! Perfect bag for a night out. It was just the ticket for the Colin Meloy show and will be great for future concerts as well.

If I had been planning ahead I might have wanted to figure out a way to make the strap adjustable and I might still fiddle with it, but for now it works.

Have you worked on any quick projects recently?