Mezzaluna Bag

I haven't mentioned it here but I have actually joined the Sudoku Wardrobe contest hosted by Pattern Review. The challenge entails creating a grid consisting of 16 squares  populated by 4 tops, 4 bottoms, 4 accessories and 4 footwear. By combining the items horizontally, vertically and diagonally, one is expected come up with at least ten outfits. One is allowed some bonus items, that is six of the items do not necessarily have to be sewn. For me, that meant four pairs of shoes and two pairs of pants that I did not have to worry about. So far I have posted about the two tops I have finished. Today, I'm posting about one of the four accessories I have sewn which is a cute little bag.

I was inspired by the "Mezzaluna" bag created by Jenny Rolfe and published in her book "Fabulous Bags to Stitch and Make." The bag was so named because of the shape. I initially tried to post a picture of Rolfe's bags as shown in her book but I realized it might be a violation of copyright issues. 

To make this bag, I had to "create" the main fabric first by fusing strips of sheer fabric scraps. I used fusible fleece as my base to simplify things instead of using felt backing and fusible webbing as suggested in the book.

Since I did not have the skill to do free motion machine quilting, I just played around with the decorative stitches on my sewing machine. I used embroidery thread to add some sparkle. 

I traced the bag template on the wrong side of the quilted fabric. The template can be found in the book but I had to enlarge it by 200% to achieve the desired size of the finish bag.

Shown above are the front and back bag pieces.

I cut the lining pieces from some fabric leftovers.

For the bag base, I used leftover faux leather fabric that I used to sew my jacket (which I haven't reviewed yet).

Construction was pretty simple. I sewed the front and back pieces to the base piece before sewing the side seams.

To attach the lining, the two pieces were simply sewn together on the top edge using narrow zigzag stitches.

And comes the fun part! Making the handles and adding some embellishments.

Handle was made of a clear vinyl tube purchased from Lowes. Size of the tube is totally optional and depends on one's preference. I just had to make sure the wire and beads would easily fit inside the tube. 

I couched a piece of string to make the heart tag.

I really love how my bag turned out. It's a fun special occasion bag that I can use to carry my cell phone and a few other little accessories! Next time though, I might add a magnetic closure.

Here are some modeling shots featuring outfits created for my Sudoku wardrobe.