A New Bag for ME!

One of the fun things I did over Christmas vacation was make something for me! I made Erin Erickson’s 2 Zip Hipster bag from a single piece of multicolor dyed fabric – one of those pieces I was saving because I love it so much…well my goodness, I can always dye more, why not use it!

Anyway, Erin has  written a most excellent pattern with an ingenious way of inserting zippers across the top of a bag:

She also orders zips that are a bit wider and have a longer pull for her bags, I must buy some of these because they look so much better (she’s got a ton of pix on this page).

The pattern has a divided patch pocket inside, I of course had to add a key leash and a peltex bottom to stiffen it a bit:

The front has two pockets, a zip in the front with a taller slip behind:

The back lets you showcase your stash:

This bag is a bit smaller than I usually have, it’s big enough for my iPad mini in a padded case in the main compartment with room for more. I’ve been putting my phone in the outer slip pocket and my wallet in the outer zip. I loved learning a new way to insert a zipper, and I’ve got to make this again with the bigger zip, plus having the “tail” of the zipper a bit longer, because right now, I get a bit panicky trying to find stuff in the inside.

I took these pix a couple of weeks ago, and was quite happy with them when I opened them up to write up this post. You may notice that I am now adding copyright info to the photo…I’m a bit late to the party on this, but I really should be doing this!

I interfaced this bag with a layer of fusible fleece, and it gave it a nice level of body and stability:

I highly recommend this pattern if you’re looking to make a bag with an inset zip!