In Town Bags

Last week I decided that it was really silly to make myself nice things and then not use them because I had some idea they were for special occasions. Case in point was the bag I made for my brother's wedding in NY last September, it's been hanging on the back of my wardrobe door after its one and only outing:



It's an Amy Butler 'In Town' bag made with Kristen Doran Matryoshka fabric. So I took it out and transferred all my stuff out of my tote bag and used it for a couple days. It was fun! I felt quite jaunty swinging down the sidewalk with this, it's distinctly non-mother-of-a-small-child in size :) I made it up while we were staying with my parents so I got to raid my mum's button box for the ribbon attachments. I've loved these buttons since I was a kid. My own button box is great, but I think there's nothing better than your mum's :)



The nurse at the doctor's clinic went mental for it, and asked if I'd bought it in London or Sydney. When I told her I'd made it she was all "NO!" and grabbed it up and interrogated me on how I'd done it, did I have an industrial machine to do that fabulous top-stitching etc.



I actually started to get quite embarrassed. More embarrassed than I normally do when I admit (admit!? I should be proud!) that I've made something. I think this comes from my childhood when my mum made a lot of my clothes and I was perennially embarrassed they weren't store-bought like all my friends' clothes were. Funny how times change, now it'd be a badge of pride I'd think.

I made this purse for my sister-in-law as a Christmas present the year before last, it's interesting how the different fabrics really change how it looks. It's a good pattern, I'd say it was a medium on Chef Messy's 'swear factor', the only thing I don't like about it is the handle placement, the middle tends to bulge out between the handles. I wonder if having them a bit closer in to the centre would fix that?