Retro Bag

Last year for Christmas I received both One Yard Wonders books.  You can find them on Amazon; here is the first one and here is the second one.  The second book is actually called Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders and has projects split out by fabric types.  The Retro Bag is from this book and I kept coming back to it every time I would flip through the book.

I purchased Terrain by Kate Spain from Fat Quarter Shop during one of their 50% off Wednesday specials….be sure to follow them on Twitter to keep up to date with the Wednesday specials.  I couldn’t believe I was able to get it for less than $6!  Talk about being excited!  I don’t think you can find this fabric in many shops anymore, which is a complete bummer, because I still love it and don’t have much left.

Anyway, I really love purple and especially LOVE this fabric!  I ordered it in March, but couldn’t find the perfect project for it so I waited until last month to make anything.  I knew I wanted to make a bag, but just couldn’t decide on one that I loved.  I didn’t want to waste the fabric on something that I wouldn’t use.  I finally decided on the Retro Bag, even though I wasn’t 100% sure I would love the bag.

Overall, this bag was pretty simple to make.  I used interfacing on all of the pieces even though the pattern doesn’t call for it.  I also used a different fabric for the lining (as you can see in the above picture).

Like I have mentioned in other posts, pleats are pretty easy to do.  While sewing this, I almost forgot to make pleats on the bottom of the bag.  Luckily, it worked out without having to undo any stitches.  I sure do hate taking out stitches!  I figured it out when I went to sew the front and back pieces together and the front piece (the one with the pleats) was too wide.

Honestly, the instructions were a little confusing at points, but then again, I’m used to following full picture tutorials.  My only complaint about the finished bag is that the straps are narrower than the bag body part that connects to the strap (see the above picture).  It’s the same on both sides, so I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be like that or if I made a mistake.  Once again, this is something that others probably don’t notice when I’m carrying the bag, so it’s not a huge deal.

Isn’t the fabric fantastic?  This bag only has the one pocket so any items are loose on the inside, but so far, that hasn’t been a problem for me.  The strap length is perfect and the bag isn’t too large or too small.  I like that the whole bag can be made with a yard of fabric, but still seems like a fairly large bag.

If you haven’t already, you should take a look at the One Yard Wonders books because they have a lot of cute projects.  Maybe add them to your Christmas list?  If you haven’t noticed, I like fairly quick projects and it seems like most of the projects in these books don’t take too much time.