Messenger Bag

My brother turned 22 last week!  He mentioned that he could use a new messenger bag.  He has been using the bag I made for myself to carry books and whatnot during college.  I knew I still had the pattern too, which made it easy, Butterick See & Sew Pattern # 4583.  Not sure if it’s still a current pattern, but there are plenty of similar messenger bag patterns out there.

 

Since it was my second time around using the pattern, I figured I would actually follow the directions correctly.  I tend to start with the directions, and then eventually abandon them to figure the steps out on my own.  Not a bad technique, but I’m starting to use patterns more as teaching tools to learn new sewing skills. 

 

I wanted this bag to be extra strong too, because my brother was born for academia!  I’m sure he is carrying around much bigger books than I ever did!  So I used a heavyweight fusible interfacing, and doubled up on it, fusing it to the outside and the lining; whereas the pattern only calls for one layer of lighter interfacing.  It made for a pretty sturdy bag; we will see how it holds up!  I added a zippered pocket inside, and made another pocket into a pen holder, making it a perfect school bag!

Edward Scissorhands Skirt Recon for my Sister’s Birthday

I can’t believe it, but my youngest sister turns 16 today!  She, like most young girls I suppose, loves Johnny Depp.  So I looked all over eBay and Etsy for the coolest Johnny Depp t-shirt I could find, and came up with this one….

Pretty cool shirt!  I turned it into a fabulous skirt (or tube top), by added drawstrings to the sides and an elastic waistband.

I should have taken more pictures of each step, but here is an inside shot of the drawstring.  I basically cut the shirt into rectangular pieces and serged (or use a sewing machine) a 6 or 7 inch strip of stretchy knit fabric to each side of the t-shirt.  Then I folded the strip in half and stitched about 1 ½ inches in to form a “pocket” for the drawstring.  I then pressed the “pocket” down evenly and stitched up the center to form 2 “pockets”.  I made the drawstrings and pulled them up one side of the skirt and back down using a safety pin to guide the string through the “pockets”.  I tied each end; you could also use a bead as a stopper if you can find one with a big enough opening to fit the fabric through.  Then I simply hemmed the loose edges, sewed an elastic waistband to the top and trimmed any excess fabric.