Vagabond Bag

I found a bag pattern in my Simple Sewing with Lola Nova book and after the success of the skipping skirt I decided to give it a go. It is the perfect market bag as it folds away easily and I had a friend's birthday in mind as an excuse to make it. It is a simple design with one continuous piece of fabric for the outside and one piece for the inside, which in theory gives the handles a nice finish; however I chose to use a fabric with a large sheep pattern on it and therefore needed to cut two pieces so that the sheep were not upside-down on one side. This was easily changed by sewing it along where the fold line would be.

I liked the finish on the bag and it was a good size with handles that are comfortable to hold. My main issue with it was the bias binding. The bias binding is used to seal up the bottom of the bag. This does give a nice clean finish but it also means at times you are sewing through 8 layers of fabric and bias binding. This is a lot of layers and makes it harder to get a straight line. It also runs the risk of some of the fabric not being caught in the stitch. Had I been using a thinner cotton or another fabric it may have been easier to sew, but then I would worry about the strength of the bag as it needs to be practical. Overall, despite my frustrations, it looked good and seemed strong. If I did it again I may just use the bias binding for the handles and add a simple panel in the base.

Vagabond sheep bag - Lola Nova pattern

Sheep pocket in vagabond bag