I made this bag at Nicole Mallalieu’s Bag In A Day class that I’d signed up for only three days earlier, using her Large Tote & Satchel pattern. I did a mad rush around looking through my piles of fabrics, found nothing I wanted to use, then did a dash round to a couple of shops to find fabric and lining.
I’d chosen a gorgeous Liberty fabric for the lining to match this Echino print, but Nikki thought Liberty was too fine a fabric for a tote that would receive a fair amount of “traffic”, so I had to fish around in my cupboard to find something else that would match.
I’m not entirely delighted with this bag, I reckon my next one will be technically better, this was more of a “practice run”. I also think I would have been happier with it if I had gone with the Liberty print, instead of the Alexander Henry butterfly fabric, but that’s why I’ve given this tote such a boring old name, and numbered it “01”.
That’s right – there’ll be more! The really great thing about this bag is that I learned a lot about this type of bag construction.
Apart from the fact that her designs and instructions are of such a high standard, Nikki is a really great teacher, and I learned a bag-full of invaluable tips and techniques for putting in a magnetic clasp, putting in a fast2fuse base, a new way of sewing in a zippered pocket, and so much more.
I think next time, I’ll use oblong rings instead of the large circles. I do love them, but I think it’d give a more professional finish to use the same shape as the slide. I took my tote out for a test run yesterday, and it is a very comfortable bag to use. You can pick up a copy of the pattern in my online shop, right here.