Art Portfolio Carry Bag

As I de-clutter I am finding pieces of art so I decided that I needed a place for those to be stored all in one place. I decided a bag to hold a mat board sandwich would work. I have a piece of mat board 32"W x 25"T.  After checking the pieces of leftover fabric stash, I had a navy piece that would work with the mat board.  When we emptied Mom and Dad's apartment a piece of batik fabric that was made by my brother in art school was returned to me so I decided that would be appropriate for this project.  I chose a couple of other colors to complement the bag.

I needed sturdy material for the handles so I chose polyester twill tape in an warm white color.  They will run the full height of the bag to distribute the weight.

I wanted a flap over the top because I did not have a zipper long enough to close the top.  By adding a piece of teal which matched the batik that worked well.

I added the piece then worked out the flap and where the bottom would be.  The bottom was just a folded edge and I thought it needed to be reinforced so I sewed a narrow strip of the navy along the bottom. I also sewed box corners to allow for the depth of my mat board sandwich.

The mat board sandwich will be 2 pieces of similar sized mat board stuck together at the bottom with duct tape. 

I will leave about an inch of tape between the 2 to allow the sandwich to grow.

It is quite big but I thought I would maximize the use of the fabric and board I had.  Maybe I am destined to do a large art piece.  The sunrise piece is quite large.

The batik piece on the front serves as a pocket.  You can see a pad of drawing paper peeking out of it in this picture.

It is quite large and should fit any type of paper pad I need should I eventually take to a class.

A button on the pocket keeps its contents in place. A twill tape loop slips over the large purple button.

All the stress point have been reinforced.

Now I needed to keep the top closed and I decided that I would use a couple of pieces of velcro 3 inches wide near the handles.  The pieces were sewn on to the front and the closing top flap.

Now, I had stitching  showing on my flap so I placed a strip of batik fabric across the flap to look pretty and cover the stitching.

Next,  I needed a visual reminder as to where the velcro was and a grabbing point to pull on the flap.  

I added 2 short loops of the same twill tape I used for the handles.

I think this bag will work well to store my art pieces and allow me to find them when I am needing one of them.

I need another piece of mat board before I can assemble my sandwich.

Happy with this project.