Bag Cloning

Spring is here, Spring is here, tra la la, Spring is here!

I've been holed up in bed for the past two days with a cold. Now the sheets are in the wash, the windows are open, and I feel like I'm coming out of hibernation.

Before the cold hit, our mailma'am brought me a lumpy, bumpy package with this inside:

An online friend asked if I could recreate this bag for her. She got it at Old Navy and has used it so much, it's starting to wear out. I figured I could handle it, but I wanted to do a practice run first, with some scrap fabrics.



The bottom was the tricky part--getting it to fit in with the pleats at the corners. By some stroke of luck I got it to work on the first try.! I was pretty surprised when all my pencil marks matched up. I thought I'd be fiddling with it for hours.

Of course, it couldn't be that easy. When it came time to do the same with the lining, it didn't match up at all. I'm still not sure what happened there. I recut the whole lining out of a different fabric and set to it methodically, and it worked.










The rest of the bag was pretty straightforward. I used things I've learned from making other bags, and from making aprons of all things, to finish it off. (Okay, I haven't exactly finished it, but I know what to do.)







When it's done, I'll share the finished product, made with the fabrics she chose. In the meantime, here is the original and my copy. Pretty close?


P.S. I'm not a fan of the pink, floral, cottagey fabric. If you'd like a chance to win that bag and take it off my hands, just leave a comment on this post. I'll pick a random winner on Tuesday morning!