A new summer bag

Sorry I've been MIA for he last little while. I've been swamped with work, and while I've been sewing when I can at home, I haven't taken the time to blog about anything I've been working on. I finally took photos yesterday afternoon, which was lucky because it's been raining all day today. Hopefully, I'll get a few posts up about my projects over the next week or so. Today, I'd like to show you my brand spankin' new bag that I made myself on Mother's Day. (A nice way to pamper myself, don't you think?)

I bought the 241 Tote pattern by Anna at Noodlehead a week or so ago as I was trying to decide on a new purse/bag. I've been eyeing her pattern for a while, but wasn't in need of a new purse until a couple weeks ago when the lining of my purse ripped pretty badly. I ordered a half yard of the blue typewriter print from Melody Miller's Ruby Star Shining line a couple weeks ago, and after seeing Jeni's 241 tote on Instagram, I thought I'd make a similar version with the blue colorway (she used the pink one).

I paired it with some Metro Living Circles and some Hometown News. This style of bag lends itself well to a longer strap, so I used webbing and some hardware to make an adjustable strap. When I want to be hands-free, I can throw it over my head. But, it's nice to also have the option of just slinging it onto my shoulder too. It was a fun challenge to figure out how to make the strap come together. I definitely felt like I was working on some tricky engineering problem.

I didn't take any photos of the inside because I already had all my stuff in it and didn't want to take everything out for the photo-op. I added an extra pocket on the inside with a couple of seams for pens, hand sanitizer, and my work key card. The outside side pockets are perfect for my keys, sunglasses, and cell phone.

This is such a great pattern and I'm really happy with the result.