Messenger Bag

For Christmas last year I made my best friend a messenger style bag sort of like this one.  One of her friends liked it so much she asked me to make one for her. I was a bit worried about how it would go making something for someone so far away, but facebook came to the rescue and we were able to get it made.

She didn't want the cathedral quilting (probably couldn't afford how much it would cost), but wanted something with a black background with a basic pattern.  I took a trip to all my local fabric stores and took photos off all the possible fabric choices, sent the pictures through messenger and she chose this fabric.  It an upholstery fabric - based on the smell when ironing a polyester of some sort.  The circle design is actually woven into the bag in a light blue grey colour.

I then used a light blue cotton to line the bag.

I added a zipper pocket into the bag which divides the bag into three sections.  A thin section behind the zipper pouch, the zipper pouch and then a main section of the bag.

To close the bag I added a bronze/gold metallic snap

Because I didn't know how long she wanted to the shoulder strap I wanted to make the strap adjustable.  However I also wanted to keep the strap nice and wide - a 3" strap makes a bag so much more comfortable to carry.  Unfortunately It's not possible to find hardware to fit a 3" strap - not without going to hardware designed for industrial use which is really huge and thick and clunky.  So instead I made the strap in two sections and put a belt loop on the end of each strap, the straps are then woven through the opposites straps loop before being attached to the bag creating a basic slider.  I'm not sure how well it will stay in place - hopefully I can get some feedback once it arrived.