Grandview Bag

A few months ago I participated in the Purse Week Contest over at A Lemon Squeezy Home.  I loved looking at all the beautiful purses, and especially loved the winner’s design.  Thanks to Emily at The Boy Trifecta she made a tutorial for the Grandview Bag, and I decided that my sister would love one for Christmas.  I asked her what was important in a bag for her, and she gave me several suggestions.

She wanted a bag that was fancy,

with an adjustable strap,

a magnetic closure,

a key holder hook thingy,

and a inside zippered pocket!

Whew! That was enough to make me tired just thinking about it, but I went about gathering my supplies and went at it.  I’d never done an adjustable strap with hardware before, and was up for the challenge.  I had also never done a magnetic closure, but I knew I’d try for my sister.

I found the fabric at Joann’s, and then finally a few days before Christmas sat down and started working on the bag.

Here it is, all ruffled and fancy and ready to go!

Here’s a peek at the inside zippered pocket, magnetic snap, and the key hook.  I took the hardware off a broken strap to make it adjustable.  I used this tutorial to do the strap, and this tutorial for the magnetic strap.  Both tutorials were great and made the new “scary,” tasks very easy and manageable.  The tutorial for the bag is in two parts, so click here for part 1 and here for part 2.

Well there you have it, my handmade Christmas gifts for 2010.