Just how did Bag Nine come to be?
I ended up with this very small piece of a remnant in my stash – just another one of the little bits of this and that, seriously if I ever bought an entire roll of fabric I would be at loose ends (get it, loose ends?) for sure.
The staring contest commenced between me and this 16″ tall piece of woven chenille.
This went on for weeks, and it was relentless. This scrap of fabric just screamed William Morris at me – even though I don’t have any reason to believe that Mr. Morris ever did anything quite like this in a block print and if he did there is no way that he appliqued it with the Eiffel Tower, tossed in some ultrasuede that was leftover from a long ago upholstery project, and then went half wild with the beads and rivets. Just no f’ing way.
Crazy part about Bag Nine is also that I was planning to reuse a leftover piece as the bottom of the bag base – the faux croc – since I had a bit of a miscalculation on Bag Eight and had a perfect rectangle to start. Crazier part about Bag Nine is that I am apparently unable to add, even with the aid of Illustrator and offset paths, so the freaking panel ended up being the wrong size and I had already put the feet on it so I had to rip the feet off and that piece went to the scrap pile to be used for collage work and I had to cut a new panel for the bag.
On the plus side of Bag Nine, I got to use my fabulous new Silhouette machine to cut the strap connectors pieces from the vegan leather roll… and once I figured out how to stop cutting straight through the mats and only cut the bag parts, life became so much happier – those stupid cutting mats are crazy expensive for what they are, at least if you ask me. I didn’t realize you could use clear packing tape to put the mats into working order again, and by the time I found that tip online, I’d already chucked both the sliced up old mats into the rubbish bin and the trash man had been by and picked them up.
But wait, there’s more! Peek inside this bad boy and wait for the delight to hit you 😉
This bag is like magic – that purple striped interior with a key fob keeper on a velvet lanyard… the myriad of interior pockets with their secret lining fabrics will make you want to spend all day just looking into the bag… the sweetly rolled handles feel just so when you pick it up… and the reinforced detachable shoulder strap in the contrasting woven webbing, that’s like the icing on the cake if you ask me!
The leather slip pocket on the back side (yes, that one is real leather, I found some pigskin split on sale at the shop and just had to have it, and I wanted to let anyone who’s against animal hides know it’s in there) is hand stitched, tightly to start, since it will stretch if you overstuff it. It’s a perfect sized receptacle for the average cell phone these days, and it will eventually settle into the look of a pocket that’s been holding a mans’ wallet for years.
Bag Nine – The Metropolitain Tote measures (inches) 13W, 14H, 6D. Handles add 6″, adjustable shoulder strap is 36″ long.
Retail price is $385.
Real product photography for Bag Nine is coming soon. I promise.