Sewing Project - Bag - Magenta Large

I made a shopping bag from the stitched piece I worked on a while back.  Thought it would be a cushion cover but sure the stitching would have held up. 

I folded the flower stitched piece to 12"x12" and ironed well.  I then cut a piece of white microfiber to 13.5" by 13.5". I laid the magenta piece onto the white and folded the white forwarded as a binding and sewed all the way around.  This will support the loosely woven polyester substrate flower stitched piece.  I then tacked the whole piece to ensure integrity of both layers. 

I had some gradient cotton in purples to warm pinks which worked well with the magenta piece.  I cut the outside piece 21 inches square.

I chose white microfiber for the lining. It's nice to have a light lining so you can see what is inside your bag. I cut the lining 21"W by 24"T. 

The finished size is 19" square with the handles extending 13" from the top edge of the bag.

I added a key clip and extra loop on the inside of the bag.

The straps were cut 1.5" by 42" from the magenta cotton fabric. The ends tuck into the front and back pockets and are stitched from pockets to the bag edge which distributes the load.  

After it was finished I decided that the magenta straps were too flimsy so I added some white microfiber to them as well. I cut a piece 3.25" W and 31" L. Folded in half then pressed each side in to have 4 layers in the end.  I then stitched that to the back of the cotton magenta strap.  Stronger, longer wearing and pretty. 

The front accent pocket measures 12 inches square.  The back lined pocket measures 12"Wx10"T and is split at 5 inches.

I added 3" boxed corners on the bottom.