The Hello Kitty Messenger Bag

Our (two and a half year old) niece is fallen for the Cult of the Cat, or better known as Hello Kitty. Looking for some crochet project to do, I found a pattern for a Hello Kitty head. After crocheting the cat head, I decided to construct a small messenger bag for The Niece, so she can lug stuff around.

The Kitty crochet appliqué was made following the tutorial at Made by K.

Sewing project: A hip pouch

This is just for documentation purposes. I had to throw together rather fast a pouch for a friend, so I couldn’t take more notes for a tutorial.

The good news is, that I was asked for another one, so most likely I am going to publish a tutorial on it.

A Didgeridoo Drawstring Bag How-To

Her is a short tutorial for a didgeridoo bag. We recently purchased a bamboo didgeridoo without an appropriate transport bag. Crafters to the rescue! Lets make an awesome bag that no one else has.

Step 1: Cutting the fabric

Here I cut a fabric piece of 132x32 cm for a 120 cm long didgeridoo. A heavy fabric does just fine.

Step 2: Add some loops

Later we want to attach some kind of handle or shoulder strap. So we add two 10 cm strap parts which are doubled to make some loops. One loop is near the bottom and one a good bit lower than the top.

The looped part is pointing to the inside of the fabric. Later when sewed and turned inside-out the loop will be on the outside.

Step 3: Double the fabric and pin it down

Just double the fabric and pin it in place, so you can go on sewing.

Step 4: Sew, baby, sew

OK, this might seem difficult, but it really is easy to do. Sew with 1 cm tolerance the bottom and the side, leaving about 5 cm on top unsewn.

Double the top side you left free to the inside and then down. Sew it in place. This will be the tunnel for the drawstring.

If this step is confusing, I am referring you to the Purl Bee, where you can see the technique in another project. To all stitches I added a second zigzag stitch to keep the fabric from frilling.

Step 5: Turn the bag inside-out and add the shoulder strap and drawstring

Well … turn the bag inside-out and add the shoulder strap and drawstring.

Step 6: Put the didgeridoo in it

That’s it. Have fun!

My take on the Osoberry Bag

Foxflat shared the pattern for the “Osoberry Bag” at her blog. This is my take on it. I used also a combination of plain and heavily patterned fabrics.

On the front I added button for easy closing.

I added a zippered pouch on the inside of the bag, which makes it a bit different from the original pattern.

Surprisingly this was a very fast project, which only took two evenings.

The Camera Bag Strap

So I entered the world of DSLR cameras recently. To tote around my precious camera, I bought a camera bag from Case Logic, which is a nice bag (especially the camera suspension "hammock"), but the strap is no good. The shoulder padding is quite big in comparison to the strap, so it seems to be very probable that it will twist around and slide of your shoulder whenever it has an opportunity.

This is the original strap:

So, lets make a better bag strap.

What you need:

• sturdy thick fabric
• padding (I used a fleece blanket, which I am using as a cheap padding)
• about 1-2 m of a strap in the width you like
• 2 fitting hooks and sliding plastic thingies

Strap not depicted.

Here is the pattern I used for the padding. 

Cut out the banana shaped shoulder pad. I cut out one of the fabric parts. Then I pinned down the fabric face to face on the second fabric and on two layers of fleece.

Then you might to sew the long sides of the banana.

Turn the tube inside-out and sew the borders, closing of the ends of the tube.

Sew the plastic things to the straps. Add the hooks. You can get orientation for this on an existing bag.

Now you can sew your prepared straps onto the shoulder pad banana.

Why is the pad banana-shaped, you ask? Because, when you hang the bag on your shoulder, the shape fits great to your shoulder, which has a good "fitting" and "secure" feel to it.

So this is the finished strap on the bag:

Sewing exercise: The Phoebe bag

Using the pattern by Artsycraftybabe, I made this bag. I added a zippered pouch on the interior.

Thank you, Oh Fransson!

Over at the Oh Fransson headquarters, Elizabeth posted a detailed tutorial for a sling bag. I was searching for a while for a nice project to get my sewing skills going, so here is my first bag sewn with her pattern: