Project Seventy One and Seventy Two: Little Cath Kidston Shoulder Bags

My lovely mother got me the Cath Kidston Sew! book for my birthday (ages ago now!) and I finally got round to making the bag on the front cover, with a few adaptations of my own. The book came with the fabric pieces to make this bag already cut out, so I made that one up for myself and then cut another one to make as a birthday present for one of the boy’s friends.

The instructions in the book had the strap attached on with buttons, but I just simplified the whole thing by sewing the straps into the bag, sandwiched between the outer fabric and the lining fabric. The original pattern also just had a button closure, but I instead added a flap and magnetic clasp as the closure.

Although I make a lot of my own bags, and draft my own patterns to make these, it was nice to be working from a pattern without having to think about it. I learnt some new things that I will be incorporating into my bag designs. I especially like the little bit of fabric at the top of the inside of the bag that corresponds with the outer fabric of the bag, I wouldn’t have thought of that myself. I am quite eager to try out some of the other bag patterns in the book now, instead of just flicking through the book and admiring the photos and them making my own bags.

I used some candy-stripe pink fabric for the lining of the bags that came from my childhood curtains (I loved my pink striped curtains as a child) and used fabric left over from another project for the birthday bag (slowly working my way through my fabric stash before I allow myself to buy any more).

If anyone is interested in a good and inspiring book for sewing, I recommend this one. Even if you are not into pretty floral country cottage type fabric that you usually associate with Cath Kidston, you can just use fabric that you like.