Another Look at the HHC Crossbody Fooler Bag

Wanna make your own HHCCF bag?

I love this time of year. The weather is pleasant, the bugs aren't quite out yet, the daylight hours are plentiful and flowering trees are in full bloom. Not so much thinking about sewing.

Therefore, in an effort to keep blogging in the absence of new stuff to write about, I'm going to dig into the archives every now and then to pull out projects to revisit and reminisce. And perhaps to give away... more on that later.

Interchangeable flaps...

The Hot Hues Convertible Crossbody FOOLER Bag was the first purse pattern that I developed for sale. The idea for it germinated as a storage solution for my mother to take on her walks around the neighbourhood. I wanted a way for her to have pockets on hot days when she wouldn't be wearing a jacket.

Once I determined how to accomplish that, it occurred to me that a style feature could be added: the ability to swap out a flap and have the bag take on a different look, depending on the fabric used to make the flaps.

However, the flap was never meant to cover any opening into the bag. When I named it with the word "FOOLER", I thought I was being clear that something might not be as you would expect. Did that ever cause a problem for a few individuals!

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It was a difficulty I did not anticipate, as none of the pattern testers asked why the bag didn't have an actual interior. (Well, one person said it gave her pause, but she then realized the significance of the word "fooler".)

One tester made her bag with two flaps...yay for Sammi! Here is a photo of the back of her bag with a black flap (she also made one to match the burgundy fabric used on the corners).

One of the two flaps Sammi made for her test HHCCF bag...

As you can see, the swap out functionality is accomplished by a button sewn onto the back of the bag. (Which means that an additional look for the bag is without a flap.)

Perhaps it was due to the way I allocated the fabric on my own test bags, but the "swap-ability" aspect never really gained any traction, judging by what I've seen over the years. (I obviously can't comment on those who purchased the pattern but did not share their results with me.)

Sylvie made the one shown below. She indicated that the flap was sewn in place at the back.

Sylvie's colourful HHCCF bag...

She made the bag for a trip to Cuba and said that it was a pleasure to sew, which to me was a nice change of pace from having someone express disappointment that the pattern did not include instructions on lining the bag. ◔̯◔

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In looking back at this pattern from a distance of eight years — yowza! — I'm impressed by the amount of leeway that I managed to incorporate into the design. I really wanted a beginner sewer to be able to make the project successfully and figured that easing up on absolutes would afford more flexibility. ("No rules!" is actually found somewhere in the text of the PDF.)

For example, the corner trim is optional. And because they are merely triangular pieces sewn onto a main body piece, they can easily be omitted. Or you could decide to put them on the front panel but not the back... or vice versa.

Corner accents are totally optional on both front and back...

Strap solutions range from sewn fabric straps to chains to webbing to ready made purchased straps. My bag — shown at the top of this post — now has a skinny leatherette adjustable strap on it. (It may or may not have been a cheap eBay purchase, I don't remember exactly.) It originally had a chain strap as shown below.

Two options for finishing off the bottom of the HHCCG bag...

Finally, the bag can be made with boxed or knife edged corners. The finished size and shape will, of course, be slightly different as you can see from the comparison photos above.

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I recently did a "volume test" on this and was pleasantly surprised by its roominess. The finished size is about 9" high x 7" wide at the top (or 23cm x 18cm). The bottom will vary from 9" to 10" (23cm to 25cm) depending on style of finish.

In the first photo below, it's holding a cell phone, my eReader, a small wallet and some keys.

I was able to carry all of this in the two pockets of my HHCCF bag...

Not that I would carry my eReader with me in this bag, but I wanted to see how much I could put into it and still have it look decent. Again, it's that caveat about adding an "interior" to this... having another compartment would distort the appearance of the bag.

Hope I've made that clear!

'Til next...