Teardrop Bag

As I finished my Blossom bag in record time I went straight onto my next bag from Amy Butler's Style Stitches, the Teardrop bag. I have made this bag for my friend Clare who, I think I have said previously, bought me the Style Stitches book for my birthday last year. She has asked me to make her a blind for her birthday and she's going to pick the fabric. Her birthday was last September and she's still not picked the fabric so, as yet, she is present-less. I thought this bag would be nice for her and the colours I have used are very 'her'.

The main body of the bag was kindly donated by my husband. It was previously his Armani denim shirt. He wore the shirt on our first date, and the second. In fact, probably on lots and lots of dates when we first met in 1990-something, he never had the shirt off; he loved it. Sadly the fashion changed and the shirt got sent to the back of the wardrobe never to be worn again. In order to ensure he never wore it again it was donated (grudgingly) to my fabric stash. It makes a pretty good bag I think!

The floral fabric is Amy Butler, again, purchased half price in the sale at John Lewis (it's sadly above my budget to buy it full price!). The hardest part about this bag was the hips, they were really fiddly to sew onto the bag and as I've used navy to top stitch them they don't look particularly neat. I have no idea how I'd get on with the smaller bag (this is the large size) but I wouldn't like to try it! I can't see me making the smaller version of this bag in any event as the large is just enough for any every day handbag (not like Amy's usual massive bags!) so the small will be too small for anything useful.

The rest of the bag was a breeze to put together. I added a flush zip pocked to the inside before putting on the top band. It is a bit squished at the top but I wanted it quite high up as its not that big a bag. I love a zip pocked and add them to all bags now as they are so handy.

I didn't have enough fabric to make the inside pocket as wide as the bag so as the sides would be showing I stitched them all the way around and then turned it inside out so that it had neat edges. I also divided the inner pocket so that it has a mobile phone section. the pocket it is a bit large when it isn't divided.

Isn't it cute? I hope Clare likes it. I am thinking of making her the matching coin purse to go with it.