The bag I made!

The bag I made!
Originally uploaded by *Puss*

I spent yesterday afternoon with my lovely friend Annabel and, for the first time in our friendship, we left the children with the husbands (with instructions on how best to deal with a Phoebe vs Eliza squabble, they have a bit of a love / hate relationship lol) and headed off to the nirvana that is Annabel's local haberdasher.

We were so enamoured with not having to permeate every sentence with "no" or "put it back" or "Phoebe don't be wet" or to hear the "I'm hungry", "I'm thirsty" or "I need a wee". It was as hedonistic as two thirty something Mums with small children and a craft habit get! Anyway the haberdashers was fab, a treasure trove of lovely things for making even lovelier things!

I had gone in on a mission as I had my eye on making a Margaret Bag for myself (purely selfless as a test run [cough]). The haberdasher was lovely and really helped this dimwitted novice out. I found these two lovely fabrics in the curtain section and we made a joint decision to eshew the interfacing and interlining [life on the edge or what?!] and just have the double layer.

I have zero patience so as soon as the girls were in bed and the husband was fed I cracked on with cutting the pattern, then I couldn't leave it like that so I did the pleats and... and... and... well I finished at 1am. This did include having to sew it together 3 times as the first time I tried I got the strap in the wrong place and the outer the wrong way round. Second time I got the straps on the outside again and the third time was the charm! Still it is soooo worth it and is very very beautiful if I do say so myself!

Big thanks to Oh Fransson for the pattern :D.