Tutti Frutti Bag

Do you know U-Handbag blog by Lisa Lam? Yes. It has so many interesting free tutorials of bag making (thank you, Lisa). Last year, one tutorial that really caught my attention was The Graceful Kelly Bag tutorial. I loved the fabrics she used and also the total style of the bag. I wanted to make one. Then I tried to find a purse frame from local shops (it means, from France). But I couldn't get the same frame like Lisa used on her blog but I found one that was on sale (important!). It was quite big, so I thought it would be fine. Not really Graceful Kelly Bag but fine. Ah yes, I bought that frame in January 31, 2012 (I found the receipt :D)

I  tried to follow Lisa's tutorial and used the pattern (Graceful Kelly Bag). And yes, I was silly. My purse frame was not matched. And I was not brave enough to modify the pattern even though I saw the how-to on Lisa's blog. I was newbie on bag making... Scared too much! And at that time, I chose a wrong fabric, I couldn't find the woven fusible interfacing and I was still confused with the term of fusible fleece (learning from english language blogs and books but shopping the tools and notions from french shops - different terms were confusing for me). So I dropped it.

And at the end of the year (2012), I wanted to try again. I started to understand more about different types of interfacings used for bag making. And I found a fabric that looked similar to Lisa's. So, a piece of pretty blue floral japanese cotton fabric was shipped from... Japan. When it was finally arrived, oh it was so soft. Too pretty. "How if I fail again?". I was nervous. So I dropped it again.

Until last Tuesday night. I decided to give it a try. This time for real! At the beginning, I was a bit confused with the fabrics. Changing decision couple times. Finally I decided to take the Tutti Frutti fabric from Vera Bradley for the outer and another Vera Bradley's fabric for the lining. I drafted my own pattern following the shape of the purse frame. Then everything was just running well...

And I was surprised with the result. J'adore!

This bag can fit one standard novel book, my wallet, my cellphone, one pocket tissue, my sun glasses and my home keys. Perfect for my me-time mate on summer!

* All fabrics were bought at Handmade Source on Etsy (China based). The purse frame was from one french online shop that doesn't exist anymore. The chain was from Au Fil d'Emma shop in my city. The interfacings used: Vlieseline G710 and H630.