bag lady

Would you believe after i had all but finished writing this post, I pressed a button (which one???) and lost the whole lot.  As i have no hope of recapturing the brilliance that was the original post, i will now have to try to paraphrase.

I am not sure how many bags one has to have to qualify as a bag lady but as i keep making them and now have more than I need; I think that qualifies me!!
I have spent the last two days playing with my new bag pattern that i got last week from Joypatch designs.  It is a cute little bag and I have had a lot of fun making it.
What i should have been doing this morning was more new car hunting but as one of my kids decided to come down with a chesty cold, staying at home and sewing became the order of the day.  Dont give him any sympathy; he is too sick to be at school, but not necessarily sick enough that he doesn't give me cheek!!  Hopefully, after two days at home he will be at school tomorrow.

Okay, back to the bag. I have spent the weekend playing with some panels of little embroideries to incorporate into it, between the strips of fabrics. I always swore I would not embroider anything that would be well used after embroidering a lap rug with some gorgeous ballerina teddy bears. Sadly, after maybe six years of almost constant use, the one strand of cotton thread gave up the fight and has now disappeared into virtual nothingness.  So, I have defied my cardinal rule. But in my defence; my thoughts about this bag always came up with one word; "pretty" and so what else could I do?  So it has four panels of little sprays of flowers. The two on the front are out of my head, the two on the sides came from trawling the internet for ideas.
so, before I bore you all senseless; here is my bag. A warning though; Joy was very clear about the need for bag weight wadding which i didn't have and decided I could live without.  And it does work without, but does have a tendency to sag.

It wont get a chance to sag when it is full of the christening gown that I am still in the middle of.
Here is the embroidery on the front..

And one of the side panels:

And finally, the inside:

See the pockets around the side: clever huh? 
A very nice friend a couple of years ago gave me some plastic to play with in my sewing. I have used it a couple of times and as I have some left I used some on the bottom of the bag to keep it a bit cleaner and hopefully not get tattered.  Thanks for that Linda!!


Halfway through the making I was worried that it was going to be a bit on the small side. And while it is not as big as I had imagined, it is certainly big enough. It is a good size actually and to be honest, I usually avoid big bags; the bigger they are the more rubbish I put in them.
I just want to say before I end this how clear and easy to follow Joy's pattern was. I am looking forward to making one or two of the accessories that come with the pattern; needlecase, scissor fob etc.  I have a piece of the pieced fabrics which is the perfect size for a needlecase (which I am sure, like the bag, I do not need more of! LOL!!!)

Well the sun has finally come out here; it has been bitterly cold today. A good day for staying in and doing not much of anything.  I hope it is warmer where you are.

P.S. Weds:
I was having trouble yesterday getting good photos with the right colours; in some it is too light and in others too dark. This was taken this morning and is maybe a little better.
BTW it was 4 degrees outside when i got up this morning. No snow but i see it snowed over towards the Dandenongs. Brrrr, a very chilly winter coming up by the looks of things.

(Yes, this shows it much better. That corner is still not standing up though is it??)