Dear sewing friends!

I am so fricking pleased with completing this project already - just begun a couple of days ago! It is a measure of my concentration and my abilities in sewing improving.... I wrote a post about the first phase of making this bag, here.

Now that my sewing space is all tidied up, as I shared in a recent video.... I started the second phase of the bag. Once I'd formed the main body of it, I began structuring the bottom: I used a heavy card from an old sketchbook cover, cut to the shape of the bottom of the bag:

This was a really satisfying and straightforward exercise, measuring the base size, then cutting the cardboard just a little smaller (to not cause any tension in the fabric being stretched by the cardboard)...

The board slid into the space that I formed by adding a fluffy layer to the bottom on the inside - and then I just sewed up the final seam by hand.

Then I attached the handle: a long strip which was the first part I made for the bag:

First I finished the ends by adding bias binding to the raw edge to neaten it up.

Then I sewed the two handles into the sideds of the bag, pulling the fabric in behind the straps and making sure they are all solid and able to carry a good weight.

Next was the zip: the haberdashery in town had a limited choice, but this nice grey-pink one with big plastic teeth was perfect - just it was way too long, so I had to cut it shorter and protect the end.

I created this fluffy tab, which is also more comfortable to pull the zip open when using the bag.

Putting a big zip like this into a bag was quite challenging for me - and it was a tiny bit out in terms of alignment, but the overall look of it is good and the quirky aspects make it unique of course!

Then I decided that the bag needed a nice big pocket inside it, so went about folding, seaming and edging a left-over piece of fabric from the original blankie that I was upcycling:

A nice comfy late-night sewing session in bed!

When I get deeper into a project, I tend to get very focussed on details and perfection...

So it took me some hours to hand sew this edge and the complete pocket!

This was this morning: sewing in the pocket; the pocket has the beautiful fabric inside and outside the pocket, so no threads will be catching via the backside of the lovely patchwork.