A long while back, I released a tutorial on how to sew a Nintendo Switch carrying bag that looks like a messenger bag. Since then, I’ve made a few more! This one however, is my favorite one yet.
The exterior fabric is a melton wool from Fabric.com that was an absolute joy to work with. I’ve never worked with a wool like this before, it was plush and took to a steamy iron perfectly. I have a large swath of this fabric leftover, and I have way too many ideas for what I want to do with it! More bags? Luxurious picnic blanket with crochet borders? Cool wizard hats…?
The interior fabric is a basic Kona cotton, but I used new interfacing for this! I wanted fusible interfacing with even more support than the medium weight to hold up the wool, and found this Pellon ShirTailor interfacing that almost feels like it’s a peel away interfacing. It’s not! It’s supportive and lightweight, and worked great for the lining.
I’ve made a few alterations to the pattern to make this. The length of the fold-over flap was reduced by 2 inches so that there’s no excess fabric hanging over when the bag is empty. And because the wool I chose was so plush, I semi-quilted the strap with a few more lines of stitching along the length. I added 3 in of the wool to the top of each of my lining pieces so that the purple didn’t show through from the top of the bag. It was easiest to just baste the wool on top of the interfaced lining pieces prior to constructing the lining, then treat it as normal.
I adore this bag. I think that I’m going to have to make another one for our own household because this one went away as a Christmas gift. I hope you also feel inspired by this lovely wool!