I have to confess – I love Disney almost as much as I love sewing, so when I can make the two things come together, I am definitely in a happy place. My latest bag sewing project is a result of beautiful fabric that reminded me of this guy:
The Orange Bird is just so stinkin’ cute! (If you aren’t familiar with him, this site has a neat little visual history.) In the last few years, he has been become a symbol of Epcot’s Flower & Garden Festival, an event I have greatly enjoyed attending while visiting the parks. I have gotten a few souvenirs of him, but I decided I really wanted to make a bag featuring him. After coming across the right fabric, an adorable embroidery design, and a rather serendipitous zipper pull, I had a plan.
The Margo collection from Figo Fabrics was a delightful find at one of my favorite quilt shops. The citrus on blue jumped out at me right away, but I really like a lot of the coordinates. Some of the combos I rejected are at the top, but what I ultimately used is at the bottom. The soft peach blender and blue with purple stars fabrics came from my stash to use as lining and binding fabrics.
Once I had my fabrics in mind, I spent some time deciding on a pattern. I had been leaning toward the new Courtside ByAnnie bag, but I ended up going with the ErgoMatic by Studio Kat because I will probably bring this with me the next time I go to Disney and the bag’s design is perfect for that type of activity.
I like that the ErgoMatic gave me lots of places to use different fabrics, and this is how I made seven different fabrics work together in one bag. My main fabric, the blue citrus print, needed something a little darker and more grounded near the bottom of the bag.
The purple star fabric went well with these coordinated, but I wanted to use it in an accent/blending role, so that was my choice for binding strips and bias binding on the ErgoMatic, but I gave it more of a feature on the Road Trip Wallet I made to coordinate.
When I am doing a bag that has this much going on, I prefer NOT to keep it simple, so I went over the top with details, including:
Cork tags from Heartwood & Hide
In-seam tags from Sarah Hearts
A pink magnetic snap on the outside flap pocket from Sassafrass Lane
Hidden magnetic snaps from Sallie Tomato
Orange Bird zipper pull from Gigi’s Zips & Pulls
Epcot Spaceship Earth zipper pull (on back) from an Etsy seller
Pink plaid (Goth babe) zipper tape from Sew Dulce
For the Road Trip Wallet, I opted to make version B with the cork flap in the larger size. I figured thius would be a good wallet to stash gift cards and other cards I don’t use a lot. This wallet was also a fairly complicated project, but it turned out well – directions were easy to follow. I used some dark blue cork for the flap and the inside snap is a yellow version of the snap on the bag.
Here’s the finished wallet:
Overall, this was a challenging, but highly satisfying project to make. It’s Disney without screaming Disney, but it makes me thing about how much I love going to Disney World during the Flower & Garden Festival.
Have you ever made a themed bag or wallet? What do you like to do to add unique, fun, personal touches to your bags?
Enchanted Pines Sewing 