Let me ask you, friends who sew bags, how often do you make bags for everyday use? How often do you see an everyday type of bag in stores and say “pshaw, I can make something similar?”

My answer to those questions: Too often, to the point of embarrassing. Remember the studded and chain bag I made a couple of months back? Weeeell… I still love it but I am having a vintage-inspired kick.

And so, this:

Yes, yes, the flap extension-slash-tongue looks wonky. I will allow this moment for you to laugh at my mediocre sewing skills. You have my permission to snicker or even point at that wonky round bit.

All right. That’s enough laughing. I have feelings, you know. Let’s move on.

As I mentioned last week, the fabric for this bag cost me more than two thrifted pieces. A meter of this actually costs more than a brand new paperback. I will not lie and say that I was apprehensive about the purchase. Due to the aforementioned vintage-inspired kick and a somewhat shoddy SMS conversation with this local bag/shoe shop, every cell of my body screamed “Sew a floral shoulder bag with a curvy flap!”

Granted, the cells didn’t say anything about that wonky flap extension-slash-tongue, but the whole thing actually looked nice when I first drew it. If you actually squint when you look at that part, the whole bag looks quite hmm….NICE.

An advantage to sewing your own bag: you can put 6 pockets for all the doo-dads you bring around every day.