School Bag

Alice (our exchange student) has been having lots of issues with her school bags. She prefers using a tote, but every bag she has gotten has broken within a couple of weeks. I suppose that is one of the hazards of using a handbag for schoolbooks. Anyway, she has been getting really frustrated with it, and she finally asked if I would make her a bag. So...she bought some sturdy black material, and last night I made her a bag.

I didn't have a pattern, so I just made it up as I went. I have actually made quite a few bags recently as part of a church humanitarian aid project, so I wasn't flying completely by the seat of my pants. This one was a little more complex though, since she wanted side panels and a pocket. It actually turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. The bottom corners are a little funky, and it doesn't have the straightest lines ever, but to a casual observer I think it will pass just fine.

Things I am glad I did:

-I topstitched all the seams after I was done, so it had a little more structure. It also reinforced all the seams, making the bag stronger.
-I sewed a seam on the pocket to make it into two front pockets. It was originally one large pocket, but it kept flopping open. It just looks better this way.


Things I wish I had done:

-Have someone teach me how to do those corners, or figure it out online. They turned out okay, but I am sure they could have turned out much better.
-Measure a little more. I faked a lot of stuff, and I think measuring and creating even a simple pattern would have made it a little better.
-Made it slightly smaller. Alice wanted it big, but the material is a little light for it's size. So, I would either use a sturdier material that had more structure for a bag that size, or make it a little smaller so it wasn't quite so floppy.

I was going to post some pictures, but our camera is ghetto, and won't let me upload them. That also means I can't upload any pics from our Christmas trip. Hopefully I can figure that out sometime soon and get the pictures up.

So, what creative projects have you done lately?