"Make it Yours" Bag Update

My Make it Yours bag, version II...

I last posted about my Make it Yours bag back in April, 2014... yep, a year ago. At the time, I was about to test the bag in actual usage.

I think I used it for about a month. My assessment was that I found it to be too deep for my tastes. In making the last set of changes to the shape, I also narrowed the circumference of the top, so it took more of an effort to reach in and rummage around, "all the way down there". The first version of the bag (shown below) — that I used full-time during the summer of 2013 — was much more user-friendly.

So what happens now?

First of all, my enthusiasm for this project is currently not running very high, so anything that I may or may not do to revise the pattern will not be done any time soon.

Over the past half year or so, I have had another design come to me that I want to pursue as a pattern idea, so while that idea is at top of mind, the Make it Yours Bag is likely to be pushed to the back burner. (Not to mention that I was recently diverted into creating a bucket bag pattern — see below for a peek — which is currently being tested.)

And none of this is necessarily bad. (Unless for some particular reason, you were on pins and needles anticipating this pattern's imminent release — which I highly doubt!)

After all, the first test version that I made represented a significant milestone for me. It was my first original design to come to life. Its successful fruition gave me the push to take bigger steps.

My Make it Yours Bag with full face slip pocket...

With a handful of patterns under my belt so far, I have several "in progress" ideas for a few more, with one significant one being the goal of this blog, so to speak. I came in wanting to design my ultimate purse. At this point, it still seems fairly likely that I will eventually perfect and share my definitive design in that sense.

Then? Well, then I can ride off into the sunset and write a book about this whole experience... because writing is actually my true passion, believe it or not.

So while I may have originally thought that the Make it Yours Bag was my ultimate design, the real adventure in this journey is that the path is not pre-determined.

For now, I'll just take a left where I thought I'd take a right... and maybe I'll even do some "dipsy-doodling" along the way.

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And now for that "peek" that I promised...

I recently became enamoured with bucket bags and decided that I had to add my own design to the pile. So here is a sneak peek at my reversible bucket bag (pattern), coming at you in May, just in time for you to make it for summer.

It looks like four, but these are actually just two bags!
(The bags shown on each level are reversed versions of each other...)

Okay, that's enough of a peek — you can look away now. ;-)