I am so proud right now, guys! I have just finished my very first fancy handbag!

I’m pretty excited about it, as you might be able to tell 😛 I made it for my mother-in-law, after making a resolution for this year that I would give only handmade gifts to people for birthdays, Christmas and the like. Despite much visible distress from my family when I announced this decision, I have forged ahead with my resolution, and so when I realised my mother-in-law’s birthday was just around the corner, I instructed my husband to find out her favourite colours.

The answer she gave was black, pink and white, and so from there I embarked on the largest sewing project I had undertaken to date. It is worth noting that I had actually made two handbags prior to this one, one for myself and one for my stepsister, and had already learned a little bit about the art of bag-making.

My first step was to go to my local Spotlight (an Australian craft store for those not in the know) and pick up my materials. I love choosing materials. I feel like it’s where the adventure truly begins, as mad as that sounds. I got a metre of both my outer and lining fabric, a metre of ribbon, and a metre and a half of the stiffest iron-on interfacing they had. I also bought a pink zip, but we don’t mention the zip. Zips are for the weak.

For the basic bag structure, a friend recommended I use this pattern. While I did use that pattern as a guide, I did end up diverging from it quite a bit in the end. Still, it was an extremely helpful tutorial and I would recommend it to anyone looking to make their first bag.

The little cat hanging from the side is my little signature cat! I love cats. I fully intend to be a crazy cat lady when I’m older and have my own house and don’t have nasty, cat-hating landlords dictating my pet allowances. Anyway. I intend for the cat to be different for every bag I make, but for this one, he’s made of felt. Incidentally, it would appear everyone on the internet recommends you don’t iron felt. I searched and searched to see if I was able to iron my kitty onto some interfacing without scorching his little face off, and everywhere said no. But I’m a determined kind of person, and decided to do it anyway. AND HE TURNED OUT FINE. So nuts to you, internet. Disclaimer: If you do iron your felt and it melts or something, it’s totally not my fault.

So there you have it: My first awesome handbag!