Uptown Girl Bag

I have had so much fun being a tester for Christine at Chris W Designs for several bags and her new Uptown Girl Bag is no exception.  This pattern is made to be sewn with faux leather but looks great in other fabrics as well.  I love the shape of this bag and it is roomy without being too large.

Not admitting to my age (older than many but still younger than others), I have been sewing for over 40 years.  This bag pattern allowed me to try some new things that I have never done before (sew a complete bag out of faux leather and make a bag with a divider pocket in it).  If you have never made a pattern of Christine's, don't be intimidated.  Her patterns have a lot of pages to them but she does an excellent job explaining each step, giving you a multitude of pictures to see what the step looks like and many tips along the way.  I will guarantee you that what you get in the end is a bag that is professional looking.  People won't believe that you made it yourself! 

The first bag that I made, I made from a very light weight faux leather that I had recently bought.  I thought that I might actually be able to sew with it on my Brother machine.  It is important that if you are sewing with a domestic sewing machine that you get a faux leather that your machine will be able to handle in multiple layers.

 Here is the front of the bag.  I used a red topstitch on the black and a black topstitching on the red.

The top of the bag has a recessed zipper. I love that look plus it keeps things in your bag, in your bag!

 

The inside of the bag has a big divider zipper pocket in the middle and 4 slip pockets and 2 pen pockets.  There are also 2 side pockets on the outside of the bag, so if pockets are a must, this is a great bag for you.

 

For my second bag, I used an even lighter weight vinyl/pleather that I use often to make straps.  I combined it with a decorator fabric that I loved.  The only thing I would do differently is change the foam that I used for the vinyl.  The bag calls for Soft n Stable but I used headliner foam instead because I had that on hand..  It did not give enough support to this even lighter weight vinyl.  Since I have so much headliner, next time I would double it by sewing 2 pieces together foam side to foam side.  I think that would do it.

 

Uptown Girl #2

 

The exterior side pockets.

 

The interior leopard print.

 

Go on Christine's blog here to see all of the tester bags.  There is such variety.

 

Thanks for browsing,

Marilyn