Russian flag bag

This was actually made quite a few years ago. It was for a cosplay, and for various reasons, the Russian flag was something the character liked. Cosplay is always difficult with bags - you need money and stuff, but you don't want a bag to ruin the effect of your pretty costume. That was why I decided to make a bag that would work if caught on camera. And here it is!

It is entirely made of cotton, for the very sensible reason that cotton was the only material I had all three colours in. Also, it's light and easy to work with. As you can see, the strap, also cotton, was two toned, with white on the outside and red on the inside. I mocked up an entirely white one and it just looked weird, so I added the red layer and it looked a lot better! Same red as on the flag of course. I actually ironed the entire bag before these photos - two years stuffed at the back of a shelf is not good for anything! The strap was particularly badly off. Next time I make a bag like this, I will use a thicker material, or add a layer of interfacing in the strap to try and stop it from scrunching so much.

Zip along the top! White, to blend with the flag. Blue thread because... I ran out of white. Turned out I had less than I thought. Still annoyed about this. It's a tiny flaw my perfectionist mind won't let go... But I had no money to go get more thread at that point so eh. I had to make do.

The lining! I was so, so proud of myself for this! I figured out all by myself how to do it neatly and prettily! I may have gone round to all my friends after I'd made it, and showed them the bag, saying 'Hey look! Lining!!!'... none of them got why this was exciting... Anyways. The terrible blue thread from the previous photo is not visible on the inside... because it's not there! I figured out (all by myself) that it would be much better to use two colours of thread in the sewing machine, one from the top, one from the bottom. So the inside was sewn with red. Which makes me a lot happier than if it had been blue too.

The length of the strap had been awkward to figure out too - I didn't own many bags in those days. That was done mainly by trial and error in the end. It turned out good!

In Summary

I really, really need to make sure I have the correct threads for things

This was an excellent learning project

Thicker fabric for strap

Practise adding pockets inside the bag

For once, I actually started making this a whole week before I needed it, and had it finished within a day of starting it. That made for less errors or making do than usual. Except the financial-caused ones...

Overall, very proud of this piece. Definitely going to be making other bags in this style over the next few months

And now, I guess I'd better stop going over old projects and deal with the one currently spread out on my floor! (which I am super excited about being able to show you in the next week or so... hopefully...)