I have just finished my very first sewing project last night, yeah….!!!

I am quite excited now. It’s been 14 years since I did my last one and had my hands working on a sewing machine again. It feels absolutely nice and satisfying, though I know that what I have sewn wasn’t really something big or complicated at all.

It’s a shoulder handbag, very simple but kind of classic for a timeless fashion. I initially wanted to do a cotton one with nice texture prints, but at the last I used one of my old tweed winter skirts (brownish coour with some white grids) in the stash. I remember I had this skirt since I was in the uni. I took it to here but I had never worn it in Australia as I put on some weight since 2000. I guess I would rather use some recycled stuff to do my first sewing project than using some purchased new and expensive fabric.

I am glad I made the right decision, other than the time being spent on undoing the skirt (ripping off all the stitches on the hems, ironing pieces to flat to make sure they are tidy), I haven’t really had any other troubles. The only difficulty I had was to deal with lining fabric, the slippery thing which tends to run away from my hands. Another thing was to stitch the pockets inside the bag. I think I need to know how to do that properly in the future. I managed to do it just right but not terribly successful

Now I am carrying this bag to the work and everywhere. The idea of this bag is to give me both hands free and a very light weight bag which I can accommodate a lot of stuff in it but not to worry about bag’s weight itself. The colour is not ideal (I found it a bit boring) as I wanted something for summer and something really bright and vivid, but it’s not bad for the purpose of matching most of my clothes. However, if I could do another one, I would do a cotton one with bright colours and pretty printed texture.

If you are interested in making one of these yourself, here are Tiny Happy’s version and Lula Louise’s version for you to choose. I actually combined some bits from both patterns. Happy sewing!