I love messenger bags and have found another awesome tutorial - my first bag project was this easy tote. This time it was a surprise for Miss 4, who has been using shopping bags to imitate my shoulder-bag ever since I went back to my part-time job a few months ago ("Bye mum, I'm off to work").
She is obsessed with Winnie the Pooh (unavoidable really as I am too and have been brainwashing her since birth), so I have combined denim offcuts with some Pooh accents. If you do not recognise the applique on the flap, it is from the TV series 'My Friends Tigger and Pooh', which has little in common with the original stories but involves 'super-sleuthing' mysteries. It was a very easy applique, just a question-mark shape I already had from my t-shirts, plus a triangle with rounded corners.
The lining fabric was leftover from a pinboard Aimee made my daughter as a baby shower present (see - since birth!) and Spotlight had the Pooh and Tigger twill tape in a clearance a few weeks ago. I followed the tutorial pretty closely and just made the strap approximately 2/3 the original length so it was child-sized.
It was so much fun that I am trying to figure out what I would like on one for myself - applique? some patchwork? The beauty of the messenger bag is you can embellish the flap however you want. Thanks mmmcrafts for a great tutorial.
Around 200 creative spaces are on show every week at http://www.kootoyoo.com/.
p.s. If you are not a sewer but would like to get a messenger-style bag for a little person you know, these gorgeous ones are currently on sale...
p.p.s. I love these bags by the very clever Cat Taylor
