I spent the past few hours making these messenger bags for my friends. I've had the fabric for at least a month and never got around to making them until now. Both of these were based on kategirl's tutorial here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=182493.0

The first one is for my best friend Lilly, she still uses a purse I gave her as a gift in like middle school so I thought it was time to give her a new one.



She likes plain things so I had to put the polka dots on the inside, but I couldn't resist some buttons!



I included some dvd's for size reference. I reduced it from the original tutorial so it's more like a purse than a bag.

Next is the bag for my other best friend Lauren! We saw this fabric at Ikea and she fell in love, so she wanted me to make her a bookbag with it.



I didn't change kategirl's measurements on this one. Some textbooks are included for reference.



Both of them close with velcro. I feel bad because I forgot to add extra pockets and I said I would, but I didn't notice until I was already topstitching. Oh well, this just means I get to make more purses!

Now that I've figured out how to post pictures, I'm posting my bags like crazy!



This is a purse I made when I was frustrated at a different purse that broke my needle. I looooove polka dots. Unfortunately I never measure anything, so it's narrower than I wanted. Also, I forgot to add pockets. And the straps are just barely too small to put over my shoulder. But I still use it. The pen is shown for size.



Close up of the top. You can see where on the zigzag detail my sewing machine randomly decided to stop zigzagging and go straight again, I had to rip out the stitches and try to pick up where I left off. Also for the straps, on one size I attached them to the outside and on the other side I did them on the inside because I couldn't pick which I wanted to do. It was kind of a practice purse that turned into one I love.

Comments are always welcome! 

I know I'm posting a lot in a row but I hate when people have a hundred different bags in one post and someone comments, oh I love the fifth one! and I have to scroll back up.



I hope the quality is OK on this one, if anyone wants I can post a better quality version. I compressed this one to web format so it's really pixelated.

Anyways, I made this bag tonight for my sister, who is a dog lover. The plain brown is 100% Egyptian Cotton and the handle/lining fabric has multicolored dog bones on it and is from the quilting section (both at Jo-Ann's). I didn't really think of adding the polka dot bone until after I had sewed the outside together, so it was pretty hard to stitch the curves. I just left the edges to fray, I thought it would be easier and look cool eventually. The bone button looks nice but is completely unfunctional. If I had wanted it to actually be a button I should have made it vertical, but that's not as cute. There's also a pocket on the inside.

This bag only took a couple hours (with several frustrating moments and about 45 minutes spent on trying to figure out how to sew the lining to the bag and pull it through the hole...) and I didn't use a pattern. The shape was kind of free handed and not meant to look like this at all, but I just went with it. If anyone wants a tutorial I'd be happy to make one, I decided I like this shape and want to make another bag like it.

*edited to make the picture work. also, a close up of the lining:

I thought these bags belonged in the same post because they're pretty similar.



This little black clutch was my solution to never having a small, simple purse to carry when I went out. I found the pattern on about.com (archived in Nov or Dec 2006, I can find it if anyone wants). The bottom is gathered which I had never done before. I think I'm going to put a ribbon around the top because you can see where my stitching kind of goes crazy at the right end. The handle is from Jo-Ann's from the beaded jewelry section, it's not meant to be a purse strap and it hurts my hand if I hold it for too long, but I still take this purse everywhere! It's perfect for a few credit cards, my phone and my camera.



This evil little bag was nothing but trouble. I was going to a wedding and had no matching bag for my dress, which was red, and I had this fabric laying around. Little did I know that it would turn into more trouble than it was worth. I loosely based it on the shape of the black purse above but with no gather. First I stitched the curved bottom unevenly. When I fixed it the purse was considerably smaller, so the lining stuck out the top. When I folded it over to make a cute edge, the stitching was uneven, so I added the lace. The lace got caught on one end so I added the bow to cover it up. While sewing on the bow my thread broke. At that point I was so mad I didn't even add a closure, and everything flew all over my car while I was driving to the wedding. Arghhhh. At least I never gave up...

Comments are always welcome! 

This was the first bag I ever made and I really just decided to wing it. My grandma helped me figure out the layout, but I did all the stitching. It turned out that it was very flimsy because I didn't know what the heck interfacing was but whatever, I was still proud of it!



Sorry if this picture is huge, I reduced the quality but you couldn't see the patterns well so I changed it back.

Most of the squares came from Jo-Ann fabrics, I picked them because they were pink and I liked the pattern. The blue fabric with the pink flowers is from an old skirt of my grandma's, the yellow/pink flowered fabric is from a dress of my great-grandmother's and the pink striped fabric is from some old bedsheets of my grandma's.



This is the inside of the bag. The big pocket is for pens/pencils and the little one is for my cell phone, but I got a new one and now it doesn't fit.

I had some batting laying around so I quilted the flap but that made it as light as air so it just kind of flopped around even more. The strap is padded too. It's a good bag for holding a couple notebooks though.

This was my first bag and I don't even use it anymore, but it will always hold a special place in my heart! Comments are always welcome! 

*edited to make the pictures work

I'd like to make something for my grandmother for her birthday (October 1st) but I can't think of anything! She doesn't knit and only sort of crochets, but she's an excellent seamstress.

I know what not to make:

afghan - she has a ton of blankets already
socks or slippers - very particular about her slippers
scarf - my great grandmother crocheted her a beautiful one
hat - her scarf has a hood

I suppose I could attempt a sweater...unless someone can come up with something super creative for me!