My Preciousssss (bag)

On Friday night, I suddenly really, really wanted a cross-body bag — the next day, we were going to Chuck E. Cheese for Cosmo’s third (as in the third time we were celebrating) birthday party, and while I like my tote bags, they do drive me nuts when I have to channel Quasimodo in order to keep a bag on my shoulder while bending over to pick up a kiddo. So cross-body bag it would be!

I wanted to make a bag like I Like Orange’s gorgeous one (Istillwant!), but I had no grommets. Curses! So I looked online for other bags to copy, and found this Nino Bossi convertible crossbody backpack. Ooh! I like 2-in-1 things — it makes me feel like I’m getting a deal. Yes, a deal for the free bag I’m making myself.

The exterior is a happy turquoise linen. I have to buy more! I copied the very slight curve at the bottom of the front flap; it’s probably not noticeable to anyone but me, though. I also added a key loop in the front pocket.


On the inside, I finally used my Alexander Henry owls. I bought it a while ago and would take it out occasionally to consider using it for someone else, but I always put it back because I didn’t want waste it on someone who might not think it was funny. Greedy! :> This print makes me laugh — I love how most of the owls look grouchy!


I wanted to be lazy and just box the corners, but it needed the separate bottom bit for the backpack convertibleness. The straps are super narrow because I only had small oval O-rings, but it turned out to be a good thing. I had forgotten to consider that the bag I was copying was made of stiff leather and able to hold its shape; when I originally tried to use my bag in the crossbody style, the whole thing would flop down and basically just hang from the bottom seam. Doh! Fortunately, the regular old split-ring keychain thingies I had were just wide enough to not fit through the O-rings, so I tacked them onto the straps just where they’d keep the bag up. Fixt!


I spent the weekend using my new (preciousss) bag as a backpack — it was great because I didn’t even notice it when I had to herd kiddies! The top flap is about three inches too short, and I really ought to have used stabilizer in the front pocket so that the button wouldn’t make the fabric bunch up, but I still love my happy bag! I’ll improve it if I ever make it for someone else; hopefully I’ll be able to decode my notes.