First post from The Goose!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted but with good reason. In the past two weeks I have graduated college and moved--yay! It is so wonderful to be finished with school for the semester and to finally be living in The Goose. Since my summer employment is currently in limbo, I've had time to do a lot of things I've been meaning to do for some time: finish up season four of 24, read a book for pleasure, sleep-in, and....sew!

As a disclaimer, I must tell you all that I LOVE messenger bags. They are my favorite kind of purse, so you will probably see many a variation on this style.

Okay, so my friend Courtney has one of the cutest Lucky bags I've ever seen (it's the Abbey Road Crossover bag if you are really interested--yes, I do know the name because I lust over it on eBay every now and then). Anyways, I thought it would be fun to try and do something similar, so I sketched away, cut out a pattern, and went shopping. This is how it all evolved:

I wanted to try my hand at piping, so I bought some rope at Lowe's (15 cents/foot as opposed to about $1.80/yard at JoAnn's) and pinned it all in place. Here is the outer shell:

For the lining, I duplicated the outer shell, adding on some pockets.

I pinned the flap and handle rings (also a Lowe's purchase) in place. Next I pinned the lining onto the shell with the right sides facing each other, leaving a hole in the lining to turn it right side out.

Ta da! I even remembered to sew up the hole in the lining, which tends to slip my mind for some reason.

Lastly, I added on the rest of the strap and some fabric flowers.

It doesn't look very much like it's source of inspiration, but I LOVE how this bag turned out!

My goal is to eventually sell some of my creations on Etsy, so I'm excited to keep experimenting. I will be sure post my future exploits into the crafty craft world.

Oh and if anyone wants more details on steps I posted, let me know. I'm just not patient enough to post uber detailed tutorials :)