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Blue Birdie Sling Bag













Here is my Amy Butler Birdie Sling bag. Woo hooo.

I LOVE it but I'm giving it to my sister who will be able to use it to carry all her texts when she goes to university this year.
This bag is huge!!! I even took off 1 inch from the bottom when I cut out the pattern and left the rest as is.

It was kind of staggered bag making event. About two months to be exact.
I started off with buying some quilting cotton for it from Spotlight. I decided to start simple and not go wild with the colours. A tiled Blue for the main body and Beige hawaian flowers for the band and handles. Then I cut out the pattern for all the pieces. That took a while but it had to be done. And then it just sat around the house.

By that I mean it sat on the kitchen table for a while.
Then it moved to the sewing room in amongst the other fabric piles.
It stayed there for a while reminding me each time I'd walk by or start some other project.









<< Front of bag showing pleats.

Next, I did all the ironing of the interfacing and the Pellon Thermolam. Phew.
Now all there was left was sewing.
I won't go into the boring details but a bit done here and there. I did add Thermolam to the handles because I thought, well if it's going to be full of heavy books it would be nice to have a cushioned handle against the shoulder.

My bobbin decided to play up on me all morning so a bit of cursing was had today. At some points there was "huh?" while I read the instructions. The hardest part was probably pulling everything out from the opening in the lining. My heart skipped a beat when it was all pulled out and I thought the pockets were upside down but alas, it all turned out.

I can't tell you how relieved I was to finish the last bit of top stitching.






<< The Inside with four pockets. I used left over Heather Bailey Free Spirit fabric. I think I omitted the lining of the large pockets and just interfaced them.




All in all it was a good project. It has a lot of steps so I wouldn't recommend it if you wanted a quick project. It's somewhat easy to put together. I'm a visual learner so I really had to read the instructions carefully. Hence, the cursing in my head when I got something wrong.

I will make another one, maybe in the Chocolate Fuji that's coming in from Tessuti, as a nappy bag.
But... for now, I will tick this pattern off and give it a 9/10 for easy to make, pretty to look at and great functionality.

Comments

  1. Hi there, i googled amy butler sling and your site came up. ive been following for a few weeks. Ive been dying to ask you a few questions about the bag - i have the pattern, my pieces cut out yet to scared to actually try it. . Anyway, congrats on your preg. i love seeing what youve been up to....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Finally, a comment on my bag!! Woo hoo. Thanks eldacostin. Feel free to ask me any questions about making the bag. I am going to embark on another one soon for my sister. If you post here it will help others as well but if you prefer you can mail me: kimsokyi[at]hotmail[dot]com

    ReplyDelete
  3. sharmanderlover.May 9, 2009 at 4:41 PM

    your bag came out looking really good! goodjob! i'm 15 and started making this bag but my fabric is green with stripes going diagonally for the bottom and straight for the bands and handle. (: hopefully it'll look okay. anyways just saying goodjob! :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for commentng sharmanderlover. I love green. Good luck with your bag. Just take your time with it, especially the topstitching cos you don't want it to look wonky. Hope you enjoy making it. Mail me if you come across any questions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi i'am getting ready to make my 5th.bag. I love it and so do my girls, They all have there own colors and designs to chose from. Wonderful Thank you

    ReplyDelete

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