Sally’s 40th birthday was in late June.  Hmmm.  It is now late August.  So it’s a good thing that her 40th Birthday Bag is now finished!

The pattern is the Hobo bag from Nicole Mallalieu Design, with the body lengthened a couple of inches to give it a bit more depth (Sally has three young boys, so she has to fit a lot into her bags).

There is an internal base made of fast-to-fuse and heavyweight fusible vilene, and I added purse feet.  All the supplies came from Nicole as well.  I didn’t want to put a hard structured base on this bag, as the overall shape is a little softer, but still needed it to have plenty of support.  I think that this worked well.  The outer fabric is interfaced and has a layer of fusible wadding.

The single strap is adjustable and passes through oblong o-rings.  The crocheted flower is on a brooch back and is crocheted in Patons Jet from this pattern.

The top has a zippered gusset closure, which was incredibly hard to photograph!

And the interior has a zippered pocket on one side and a patch pocket with mobile phone pocket on the other.  There is a key leash as well.

I am VERY happy with this bag!  Luckily for me I have plenty more of the fabrics left.  They’re from a range call Utopia by Free Spirit (bought at one of Z&S Fabric’s excellent sales last year).  The yellow ric-rac trim came from Spencer & Rutherford’s sale.  I love the finished result – I’m almost having trouble giving it away.