Pink Wool Bag

A couple of weeks ago, M asked me to make a couple more purses for her shop. Two of the others that I made awhile back had sold - yay! The only guidelines M has is that the purses should close securely, preferably with zippers. She finds that bags that stay open or close with only a snap don't sell very well.

Since color, style and fabrication were all up to me, I really wanted to make them from materials I already had. My MIL sent me home from our summer trip to their place with a pile of fabric that she had. One of the pieces was a really nice dark pink wool. The piece was long, narrow and not very big - ideal for a bag.

Please pardon those spots on the camera!

I used the pattern I developed when working on these bags. Since the fabric was plain, I figured some embellishment would be a good idea. These roses are pretty easy to make. If I were looking at this bag in a store I would be concerned that the roses would come apart or come off the bag, so I made sure to stitch them on very securely.

The strap is made of four layers of wool. I was worried that my machine would balk at my request for it to sew through that, but it did it beautifully with no problems. Go Pfaff! The channel stitching adds some texture and makes the strap feel very sturdy.

I modified the lining pattern to accommodate a zipper. This isn't a great picture of the bag's interior, but there are pockets on each side of the lining.

I felt quite happy with this bag when I was finished with it. Sometimes selling things that I make causes me some anxiety. I feel like the products need to be flawless and certainly better than store-bought to make it worth paying the extra cost. I try not to let that be paralyzing. Anyway, it does feel good to be happy with a product before sending it out into the world. :)