Sew A long using Mrs H The Fiesta Tote Pattern

Hey everyone 

Hope your having a happy sewing bag day?

The sun has finally decided to show its self and present us with a bit of warmth in the UK 

So ive put together my frist ever Sew A Long YouTube video eke!

I've decided to base the Sew A Long on Mrs H sewing pattern The Fiesta Tote.

You will need to buy this pattern to be able to sew a long with me and make this bag.

You can get the pattern as a pdf (Digital Download) or paper pattern 

(click on the links to buy the pattern)

So i have made my handles and shoulder strap different to the pattern.

 So if your doing the webbing strap as per pattern your need to follow the cutting instructions within the pattern instructions 

 If your like to make my handles and shoulder strap your need the following materials

• Half a meter of faux leather
• And the left over outter fabric from your otter main outter fabric which you need for the pattern
• Your also need extra medium weight woven interfacing half a meter

Cutting out my handle 

☆Anything marked with interfacing you need to cut out matching interfacing

Faux leather 

60" long by 6"wide (x1) plus interfacing

 3" wide by 26" long (x2) 

Fabric (using left over from the outer fabric)

2.5" wide by 23"long (x2) plus interfacing 

Your be informed when to fuse your interfacing within the video

You can watch the video here

(there is 4 parts to this sew a long)

If you get stuck or have any questions please just ask " I dont bite lol"

The Fabric used in this video are

Main Outter Fabric:- All Stars Squirrel by Tula Pink

Lining Fabric:- Pandalicious by Katarina Roccella

and Nightfall by Mauseen Cacknell

Faux Leather:- Teal Colour

There is a few key pages and groups you should follow

https://www.facebook.com/R.j.A.f.MAKES/

https://www.instagram.com/rjafmakesbecky

Mrs H soical media pages

https://www.facebook.com/sewingpatternsbymrsh/

https://www.instagram.com/sewingpatternsbymrsh

If your posting on instagram dont forget to tag me and Mrs H, we would love to see your progress and final results 

So Bag Makers i would like to show you my latest Bag Maker Enamel Pin Badge.

You can show off to the world, while out and about that you are a Bag Maker.

I've designed these hard enamel pin badges to help spread the word your a proud bag maker.

You can buy the pin from

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/594474360/enamel-pin-bag-maker-bag-maker-bag?ref=shop_home_active_1

So without ramberling on i would like to say a big thank you to Samantha Mrs H for letting me feature one of her bag patterns

I would like to say thank you for joining me on this Sew A Long because i've had a blast making it.

Dont forget to Like, Share and Subscribe to the channel a i will be doing a video every so often so you can learn more sewing with me

Happy bagmaking 

B x

Hey Sewers!

Today I'm doing a review on The Convertible Bag pattern by Sewing Patterns by Mrs H (Samantha Hussy)

 you can buy this pattern as either a Digital download (PDF) or a paper pattern from www.mrs-h.com

Over on Mrs H Bagineers  facebook group there was a bag swap which was organised by the team which run the page and i decided to join in.

The pattern we all had to use was The Convertible bag then once we finished making it we had to sent it to our secret swapper. This was my first time making this pattern (Ive now since made it again)

The things i love about this bag are, its actually 2 bags in one bag, it can be used as a cross body bag or a backpack (you do all this by adjusting the strap into the position you need for that type of bag you want to carry on that day) 

Another thing i love about this bag is the slimness of it how compact it really is but holds loads of everyday things in it, i can even put my large electronic tablet in it.

It also worked out to be a quick sew, once i cut it out and fused all the interfacing together it sewed together fast all in all it took around 3 hours approx

I decided to make this bag in mainly faux leather apart from the flap closure and the lining fabric which i used 100% cotton. The octopus fabric is by Tokyo Milk from the range Neptune and the Mermaid

I did miss a few things out of the pattern mainly pockets, i missed the back outside zip pocket. I left this and made it plain, due to the fact in the past as i use bulky zipper pulls they tend to dig in my back (this is if the bag was to be used as a backpack) so i was thinking comfort especially as i was making this for someone else. I also didn't have enough of the lining fabric to do the large slip pocket in side. I still managed to do the inside zipper pocket, 

 

The back view of the bag (in backpack position)

As in this photo you can see the long strap feeds though this tunnel tube which then you clip the swirl hooks on the bottom d-rings to make the shoulder straps to be able to use it as a backpack, which you can adjust with the strap adjuster to make it more comfortable for you.

To make it a cross body bag you have to unclasp the hooks from the d rings at the bottom of the bag and feed the long strap though the tube tunnel at the top, then your find 2 d rings either side of the top of the flap which then you attach the long strap to. See pictures below

The coolest (is that even a word lol) element of this bag (which Ive never seen before) is how the box corner is made and leaves an added detail on the finished bag.

The picture below shows you this, i think the reason Mrs H did this was to stop it giving you a boxy feel and more of a curve edge feel, so there isn't any harsh corners 

The flap closes with a thumb catch closure (which is a push bottom to open it and a push and clip to close it)

Since i made this bag with mainly faux leather i opted to use fusible fleece but if i was to make this in just cotton fabric i would use medium interfacing and a foam stabiliser like headliner ( which they use in cars) the reason i went with fleece is because i use marine weight faux leather and this already has a bit of stiffness to it, so i just decided to add a low loft fusible fleece to make it hold its shape.

My overall view of this pattern is i love it and the fact that i can make it within 3 hours is a big bonus for me. Would i make more of this bag, of course i would (Ive already made one for my oldest girl) 

I can see in my mind many ways of making this bag, the flap has a large area which you can add many elements i.e an embroidery or even a patchwork quilt block, the creativity is endless

If you have any questions on how i made this bag please ask away

there is many more photos over on my facebook page and instagram page

for you to take a look at. 

Becky

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Get to know Me!

A little bit about good old me!

Im Becky Alexander-Frost, the Creator and Founder of R.j.A.f MAKES. 

I started R.j.A.f MAKES nearly 3 years ago now. Its all down to my husband Michael, who came back from a charity shop with an enfants ice hockey top and said it wont fit the kids but do you want it. Well Michael thought I could make a cushion from it, YER RIGHT! I was thinking big, well big ish! At first I was saying I will make a simple shopping tote, but a week went by of me surfing the net watching every YouTube channel I could find on bag making and thats when I found a huge world of bag making. It was like my bag collection (YES I have a bag addiction) could grow even bigger by me making my own bags. So I started to look at SWOON patterns and this is where I meet the Maise Bowler, and this was my first ever bag out of a £4 kids ice hockey jersey and some Faux Leather.

My 1st ever Bag The Masie Bowler 

Would I change anything now on this bag, YES I would, the Faux leather I used was of a cheap value and feels fake to me, compared to the Marine weight high qulity I use now. The Hardware is cheap and i've had to replace the lobster clasp hooks with the latest better qulity ones I use now. Also I didn't know anything about foam stablisers, so I used fleece and if im honest the bag goes floppy. But overall I still use this bag to take to ice hockey games and still use it for everyday when I need a light weight bag.

The Ice Hockey Bags haven't stopped there for me, after turning up to the 1st local game of that new season, fans were coming up to me asking me where I had got it from and that is when I got to say " I Made It!" there faces were priceless. Thats when my adventure actually started for me nearly 3 years ago. I had friends coming to me with there old jerseys and asking what bag I could come up with for them. It wasn't just the ladies it was men too, but I couldn't make a hangbag for them now could I!

 So I went to the drawing boards and came up with a rucksack disign and drew up a pattern for a rucksack bag

See I had a fair few given to me to make into bags and these are pobably half of them.

Some of these are in my Etsy shop to buy.

After this I decided to go on facebook and look for groups in the bag making  world, this is where I came across BBM ( British Bag Makers) Group. I've now joined loads more groups and have made friends in all of these groups. However BBM is where my bag making friendship journey started for me, and this is where I could ask about patterns and what I was doing wrong if I couldn't get the tabs to sit right for example. These bagineers helped me out loads and now I class them as friends. 

Once I saw new patterns which these friends on BBM and other groups where making I needed to buy them and make them so here are some of bags I have made. Bear in mind I can't list them all as there is too many now but I will give you the links to my instagram and facebook page so you can see of them.

Like I said there is way to many to show

Its only in the last 5 months of my adventure has really taken a turn for the better. I put this down to the designers I have worked with, as a pettern testers. But what really shocked me was a British Pattern Designer asking me to join her team and start working for her on the soical media side of thing and thats Samantha Hussy AKA Sewing patterns by Mrs H 

And this takes me to now. So whats in the picture for me!

well who knows I am looking at starting a new collection of high end but affordable bags but this is still in the early stages.

I will be posting every so often so please follow me and you can join me on my bag making journey.

Thanks and have a great day

Becky

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