B7315. Just three pattern pieces. Not too big, it'll hold your phone, some lip gloss, movie tickets to see Hobbit 2 for the third time, and some contraband Reese's Pieces, but not much more.
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Offspring the Younger is an Anglophile. Dr Who, 1D, Sherlock, etc. I had been tinkering with Union Jack designs for a duvet cover for her down comforter and I found a square Union Jack at Flagspot.net. I printed one off to scale up to comforter size but hadn't gotten very far with that.
10:15 pm, B7315 in hand, I happen to glance at the flag and that was when sleep stopped being an option. The print was exactly the right size to fit the flap of the bag. I have three off-white garment weight sheepskins perfect for handbaggery. I have oxblood red and denim blue leather dye.
(Red+Blue=Violet. I swear I do violet things!)
The skins are from Brettuns Village. The dyes are Angelus Leather dyes. I roughed out an area for each of the colors and swabbed on the color
The red was too dark on the first go, but I have dye reducer and that lightened it up. I dried the dye with a hairdryer and then used SnoSeal to lock the color. I really glommed the stuff on and then heated it again to melt it into the leather. A buff with some scrap wool removed the excess.
I used some basting spray to stick the pattern pieces to card stock to make a template to draw the pieces out with ball point pen.
I reprinted the design on card stock for templates too.
The edges of the colors showed on the white card pieces and made a neat little placement tool.
I don't have a non-stick foot so I used pattern tissue scraps to cover the leather...
...which meant I had to spend some time pulling out the bits after tearing away.
Wonder Clips. If you don't have them, get some. They rock!
Cue the playlist!
The Clash (London Calling)
The Sex Pistols (God Save the Queen)
The Damned (Neat Neat Neat)
At this point (2 am) the mania let up and I needed heavy topstitching thread. (Thread. The one thing I didn't have for this project. Go figure).
The bag part goes together super quick. Two darts on each side and a long strap. There is a strap pattern piece but it's just a three inch wide strip so I drew it straight onto the leather. The pattern has a buckle but Offspring didn't want it so I just made a fixed length.
The strap goes on first and the lining (white silk) finishes everything off.
While I was out to get the topstitching thread I picked up some doodads to decorate with.
Offspring loves taking pictures.
I finished the bag on Valentines Day.
Great little pattern, but sadly discontinued. If you happen across it, snatch it up! :D
