A groovy messenger bag made with special fabrics…

(Note: I wrote a good deal of posts last year that never got published because I didn’t take any pictures to go with them. Now that I have a better camera, I’m gonna try to be a better blogger too. This one is from last July!!)

I don’t usually “plug” things in my posts, but I really need to give a big shout out to Firecracker Fabrics for the look of this bag.

I bought the pattern and all the fabric for this bag at Firecracker. They are a wonderful boutique fabric shop in the East End of Pittsburgh. They carry a wide array of apparel fabric, all sorts of notions, hand stitching projects, and specialty fabrics! And the ladies that run it are super duper sweet and not in the least bit snooty.

Anyhoo, their fine shop equipped me with these loverly fabrics:

Magenta & Black African Wax Print

Cotton + Steel Teal and Gold Canvas

I bought these fabrics separately and purchased the C+S canvas last. The canvas was the base fabric and I matched the others to it.

I can’t lie, I was mega paranoid about these colors looking horrible together. I looked at them under sunlight, lamplight, fluorescent light, and a flashlight while night sewing to check the colors. In the end, I trusted myself and just went for it. It has a sort of “Malibu” vibe.

All the hardware came from my stash or was harvested from an older bag. The button on the front is Abalone Shell, the strap bar is also shell.

I added pockets and pen-holders to the inside of the bag and installed a key-finder thing.

This bag was a fun project and relatively easy to make. I use it everyday. The only bummer is that my giant coffee thermos doesn’t fit in the bag and I have to carry it in the crook of my arm like a bouquet of flowers or a small doggo.

Epilogue: I still use this bag every day! It could stand to be washed but it’s held up very well in my reckless custody.