Me Made May: Frenchie Bag for My Mommy's B-Day

So, May is a busy month for our family because it's not only Mother's Day, but the 21st is also my mom's birthday. This always puts us in a bit of a weird position with presents and whatnot - kind of like having your b-day on Christmas or something. I always feel like a heel when I have a nice gift for one and not the other. On top of not knowing what to buy her, I also have seriously zero dollars to buy anything with. So, I pulled out yet another sewing project that has been planned for years and never made.

Back when I was getting married, my mom and I found the Frenchie Bag by Amy Butler at our favorite sewing store during a sale and thought it would make for cute bridesmaid gifts. So, I made them up in black with white polka dots on the bottom and yellow with little starts for the top to go with my wedding colors. When we bought all that fabric though, we also picked some out for ourselves with the intention of making them together. That was about 4 years ago and I made my bag, but my mom's never got done.

So, since I had the fabric and the pattern and I'd made about 7 others in between, I decided to whip out one for my mom in the fabric that she chose. Here is what it came out like:

Isn't it cute? The fabric is a Michael Moore print of flowers with a coordinating stripe from the same collection. I think this is easily the nicest looking one of these that I have ever made, so my mom definitely benefited from hers taking so long :) Originally we had purchased the fabric to make the handbag size, which is much smaller than this one. But from my previous experience with all the other bags, this pattern leaves a lot of extra fabric after cutting, so I figured I would have enough to make the bigger size and I was right. The only difference because of this is that the pattern tells you to make the main fabric and the straps the same, but with using the flower fabric for the bigger size, I didn't have a long enough piece to do the straps. Plus, I figured it would be cool to have the long stripes on the straps and I'm really glad it worked out that way.

Here is a closer view of the top :) I actually finished this one like the instructions say - it really wasn't much more work, I was always just lazy before. See the cute stripes on the handles :) And I made sure to keep them perfectly straight on the lines of the stripes. I think it came out very well.

Another cool thing about this bag is that is has 2 pockets inside :) So it can help to separate your stuff - most other bags I have made in the past are just an open shape inside with no pockets. Next time I make this bag, I'm going to sew one of the pockets up the middle so it has 2 smaller compartments instead of the big one.

So, I started this at 9pm last night and had it finished and taking pictures of it by midnight :) Not bad - I've gotten it down to a science. My mom was thrilled to have it and while it took a whole night away from me, I'm glad she liked it so much and that makes it worth it :) Happy Birthday, Mom!