Hipster Bag

I read a review of the Two Zip Hipster Bag by Erin Erickson on How About Orange that was pretty good, so I decided to make that for my friend's ten-year-old girl for Christmas.  I had been considering the messenger bag from the Oliver and S book, but it was all edged in bias binding and I didn't want to hassle with that, so when I saw the Two Zip Hipster Bag, I thought I'd give that a try.  Plus I had heard that she was getting a Kindle for Christmas and the bag was pretty much made for a Kindle, so that sold it for me.

So I ordered the .pdf file and read through the directions.  The supplies section listed that you needed a 1.5" rectangle and a 1.5" slider for the strap hardware.  No problem, right?  Well, in the notes section of the supplies, she indicated that 1.5" hardware is hard to come by and that I should shop on Etsy for it.  Um, well, that's all well and good, but I did not budget enough time before the package had to go out to wait for a package from Etsy.  I made the rounds at the sewing supply stores and I could not find the right hardware.  She also suggested getting a thrifted bag and stealing the hardware from that.  So, I went to the Goodwill, found a bag, measured the hardware, and used that.  Unfortunately, I measured the outside of the hardware and not the internal portion, so I was still off.  Oh well.

Forgive the color saturation of this first photo.  It's the only photo I have of the entire bag:

And here's a close-up and a more accurate color palette:

I figured that the mismeasurement of the hardware was pretty insignificant.  It was better for the strap to be a bit too tight than a bit too loose.  I'm still pretty annoyed with the pattern, though, because of the whole go buy it on Etsy thing.  It's not the pattern's fault that I did not have three weeks to make the bag (i.e. wait for an Etsy delivery), but still annoyed.

I lined it with some light green shiny fabric that I had leftover from my Jane Austen dress.  

As for the directions, I thought everything was pretty easy to follow and there were pictures for almost every step you take.  You have to print out about 35 pages and then you tape all the pattern pieces together.  The one thing that was a little hard at first was the bending process of the zipper ends for the top opening.  You kind of have to fold them over so that they make a nice roundish end and then you have to quickly handsew it in place.  I forgot to get my needle ready before the bending, so then I had to start all over again in order to thread the needle.  I really don't know how to explain it, but here's a close-up of the zipper just after the ends had been rounded off and tacked down:

So there you have it.  A nice little bag.  The report from her mom was positive, so I think it was the right choice!  Yay!