I went on to Ebay and picked up a couple of easy patterns.
See and Sew 3880 and Simplicity 1153
I bought some elegant fabric for the S&S3880 view A - white with an embroidered purple edge
Unfortunately, I have decided to not post any pictures of that dress. It was... horrible!! The first time I made it, I thought maybe I was just too inexperienced (even for a "yes its easy" pattern!), but I have since made it a second time and now I know that it is just an awful pattern. The lining is unfinished and only 10cm (covers a small portion of the bodice... so on white fabric you can see the line of the lining half-way along the bodice!). The squared edge of the neckline simply doesn't square (at least, if you follow the pattern pieces; I didn't try to customize it). The shoulder straps don't end-up with a nice finish... basically, it's just a horrible pattern, and the only pattern I have ever thrown away! Garbage!
The Bag pattern, however, was much more fun!! I found some interesting fabric in one of my (many!) local textile shops - black with a white zipper-motif printed on it. Very bag-looking material, and because it was in the leftovers bin, it only cost me $4-5.
The pattern is straightforward - a primary "boxy" main bag, another panel for the side pockets, two rectangular strips on each side of the zipper, and then 6-8 long rectangular bits sewn together at the ends to create the strap. The strap is sewn to the sides of the bag over the side-pocket piece, resulting in three separate pockets on each side. That's all!
The sewing process isn't particularly enlightening, so I wont describe it. Just a few pictures of the final product. I have now made this bag about 5 times, in various colors and in various sizes. The size of the pattern is a bit smaller than you would expect - about 35cm on the longest axis of the bag. The pattern, however, is easy enough to made bigger! Also, it's quite easy to add a lining (even after the bag is finished! Just copy the same pieces as the bag itself, turn the bag inside out, and sew a second time along the top seam). One problem with making the bag bigger is that it doesn't have enough rigidity to hang properly from the straps, so if I were to make it again (yet again!) I would add some heavy interfacing to give it a bit more body.
Here are a few of the finished products, in both black and yellow (same fabric print)
For the last one, I approximately doubled the size of the bag, and decided to change the handles from fabric to a white chain metal. (I just folded the ends of the handle fabric under to make the loops that hold the chain). You can see that increasing the size of the bag does NOT give you nice results! It's just too... floppy! :-(
Lesson learnt! Next project!
