Can you believe summer is already pretty much over?! My kids go back to school in less than two weeks. They’re ready and very excited to meet their new teachers; one is in first grade and the other is in her last year of preschool. They sure do grow up fast!
Anyway, this summer we also had a visitor from across the world. Nona came from Abu Dhabi and we got to see her a whole lot this summer which was fantastic! The girls saw her more than I did because I was working a lot but either way, we were so happy she was here. Now she’s about to head off to the middle east again and I figured I’d send her off with a farewell present. I did some digging around in the patterns I have and came across this Evelyn handbag by Swoon Patterns. I’ve done her Charlotte City tote before and found the directions super easy to follow and fairly quick to sew up. This was no different. However, her pattern calls for this to be made in all cotton and I had a black vegan leather I wanted to use instead so I did modify a few things but it still worked out in the end.
Because of the bulk of the leather, I had to modify a few of the pattern pieces and kept a few the same. The handles remained the same as the pattern but I used some leather screws to attach because my machine was NOT going to sew through 8 layers of leather. It works great and holds up well, too, using the screws. For the accent pieces, I only cut one of each instead of two since I didn’t need to sew it and flip it out. For the handle stripes, I just cut one 1″ piece instead of what the pattern calls for.
I will admit that this is my first time using Soft and Stable in a bag and it made things a little tricky at times, but not impossible. I’m not sure I’ll use it again, either. I guess I prefer my bags heavier and more weighty as opposed to fluffy and light, but again, it’s a personal preference. It does work great for this bag though!
The outside fabric is Typewriters from Cotton + Steel’s Black and White collection and the inside is a coral newsprint from Collage by Carrie Bloodstone. I kinda LOOOOVE how it turned out. 🙂 What do you think?
Hope you’re all having a great summer!
Oh my goodness! I am massive fan of this! I haven’t made a bag yet and am yet to brave leather, but after seeing this I think I might want to give it a go!