Many many months ago, Cathy and I organised a private swap – one of her paintings for a custom made bag.  I did exceedingly well from this swap – this wonderful original artwork, Reef, has been hanging on my wall for some time now.

Whereas poor Cathy only received her bag last weekend!

It’s the Large Slouch pattern by Nicole Mallalieu, which I have now made around five times.  One of the things I love about this bag is how much you can fit into it – it’s capacious, yet the shape means that it sits comfortably against your body.  Here’s another angle:

The exterior fabric is canvas that I bought at Spotlight around a year ago. I added a small zip pocket to the outside to keep a mobile phone or tickets in – lined with some fabric by the talented Cam, aka Curlypops.

There are interior pockets on both sides of the bag as well – a large zip pocket on one side, and divided pockets on the other. The interior fabrics are from Ikea, as well as more of Cam’s bicycles. I added a key leash as well – it’s good to know where your keys can be found when they’re in a bag this roomy.

It’s so hard to photograph the insides of bags! The strap is webbing and has a quick release buckle, as well as a slide to make the length adjustable.  I used a nice chunky zip as the closure, and added a layer of fusible interfacing and thin wadding to the exterior canvas for further support and structure.  All interfacings/waddings/buckles etc came from Nicole Mallalieu Design.

Cathy seemed happy with her bag, so all in all it was an excellent trade! Cathy’s artwork is available for sale here.

It’s been a very busy week here in the house of thornberry with minimal crafting done in the sewing room.  The kids are still on school holidays, and after the lethargy of last week, things have moved up a gear and we’ve had play dates, swimming lessons, movies, and lunch out.  Whew!  I still have another week with the kids before I return to work so we’ll be making the most of it.  I love school holidays – and I love annual leave!  I’m not so keen on night-time toilet training – Stella has (finally) decided that “I’m a big girl” and has started going to bed without a nappy.  Needless to say I’ve been up in the middle of the night changing bedding for two nights out of the past four.  At least it’s summer and everything dries quickly.  Have a great weekend everyone!