Project Photos: Fancy One Strap Backpack

Okay, so it's been awhile since I have posted any real projects, but I've been busy crafting for my ren faire outfit. This is my first time going to one of these events so I pretty much started from scratch. Everything has been rolling along and falling into place, and now I'm finally ready to start posting some pictures. I'll start with my bag:

This backpack is made from the fabric I had after making the dress. It wasn't really part of the plan, but the thought of this fabric languishing in a drawer unused was too much. I started hunting around for smallish projects that I could make and I stumbled across this pin on Pinterest. It brought me to this tutorial. The fact that I was working with scraps meant that I had to dig into my stash and tweak the pattern to really make a project this size work. It feels good to create something like this without buying a single thing!

The red brocade came from the underskirt. This one is my favorite fabric, but it was really expensive so I only had enough left over to make the front and a single strap. At first I was sad I didn't have enough for two, but I was playing around with the long thin scrap I had trying to find the best strap length and noticed the sash effect when I draped it like this. Now I can't imagine this bag any other way.

The front pocket and flap.

My super fancy strap had to have an extra piece attached to get the right length.

Here's the back, and you can see the tiny side pockets that I added.

The main body of the bag is made from the navy satin from my overdress. I had plenty of this one since I bought about a yard more than I needed of this for the dress. The bottom of the bag is quilted in a 2" grid with a thin interfacing and some plain cotton fabric. Satin just seemed too thin by itself. The outer sides also have the sewn in interfacing.

I added a drawstring in place of the elastic band she suggests in the tutorial, and that casing is also made from the satin. The string is the same I used to lace up my dress, and I had the wooden toggle sitting around in my stash.

Here is the main flap open.

Here is the drawstring open, and you can see the wooden button for holding down the top flap.

Inside, I made the pocket a bit larger.

The inner layers of the bag are made out of scraps of a white on white damask fabric and a plain white cotton. The sides and bottom, being of the thinner white, were two thicknesses quilted together with the same 2" grid pattern. You can't tell in the photos, but it was with a white thread so it blends in well.

Tomorrow, I'll put up the photos of the dress that matches this bag. Well, it matches the outside of it anyway.