Convertible/Reversible 4 in 1 Bag Tour & Giveaway

Welcome to the Convertible/Reversible Bag Tour. Today is the first day of the bag tour and I'll be showing you my bag but for those of you that are visiting here for the first time let me tell you a little about myself.

I've been sewing for years and grew up watching my mum sew but never really enjoyed making clothes. About five years or so ago I got into making bags and loved it. Then came pattern testing for some wonderful bag designers. I've learned so much from them. I also like to try my hand at patchwork quilting and even tested a quilt pattern just recently which was so much fun. My biggest weakness is fabric, if I leave the house the chances are I'll come back with some. My greatest joy is that my daughter graduated as a Textile and Fabric Designer and she too loves fabric shopping. We're like two little kids in a sweet shop.

Ok lets get on with the bag tour.

I found Sarah Gido at Cosy Nest Design through a friend and it was only after chatting with Sarah a few times realized I had won one of her bag patterns just recently. I can be a bit slow to catch on sometimes LOLL. The 4 in 1 bag is Sarah's latest design and was thrilled to be able to test it for her. What an amazing bag she came up with. I've never made anything like it and whilst making it, constantly wondered how on earth Sarah came up with this design and how she managed to put it all together to make a bag.

Here's my Convertible/Reversible 4 in 1 bag. Four bags in one, can you believe it!!!!!!

How, you're wondering, well I'll try my best to explain.

 

Here's the first of the 4 in 1 bags. A cute clutch with a magnetic button flap closure and if you go HERE Sarah has a tutorial on how to make magnetic snap covers, a brilliant and very effective idea and you can let your imagination run wild with these by making them with flowers or whatever you wish. In the pattern the flap has piping around it but I omitted that. It would also look great with a twist lock closure. If you were using a plain fabric you could even do some embroidery on it. This bag design allows you to let you creativity run free.

This is the back view.

If you look inside you'll see a zip on the bottom and probably thinking what a strange place to add a zipper but that zipper is actually the top of the next bag when pulled out and up.

to look like this. The pattern says to make two adjustable straps, so that they match the two different fabrics you've chosen but I chose a fabric that matched both sides of my bag so only needed to make one. 

The sides have tabs to attach D rings but I omitted those and just attached the strap straight onto the fabric tabs. So far you have a clutch and a shoulder bag or cross body bag.

Underneath the zipper shown in the photo below is another zipper from the other side of the bag, getting confused, stick with me, I stitched a decorative running stitch to hold the two in place becasue I was pretty sure if I machine sewed them together I was going to get wonky stitches on one of the sides.

Ok lets move onto the third. This one is my favourite side. You turn the whole bag from the above photo inside out and you get your bag #3. You'll notice this side is slightly different. It has a zipper across the middle. This flange can be in the upward position like mine or folded down. Again you have your side tabs to attach the adjustable strap.

Are you still with me. Now you'll see why there's a zipper in the middle with fabric tabs below it. Time to show you bag #4. You remove the adjustable strap and push the top half of the bag above the zipper into the bottom half.

Attach your straps to the tabs below your zip and close up your zip to give you another wonderful shoulder/cross body bag.

And there you have it 4 bags in 1. Genius!!!!!!

This bag is so versatile, you could use cottons for one side and use it during the day and a fancy evening fabric to turn into a clutch for going out in the evening.
My bag was made from quilting cottons as suggested in the pattern as one of the fabrics to use. Heavy upholstery fabrics is not an option for this bag because it would be too bulky but the other fabric suggestion was vinyl, which some of the other ladies in the blog tour used and they look amazing.

I'm a visual sewer, as well as clear and simple instructions I must have photos accompanying them. When I got the pattern to test I really thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew. What no photos!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't back down now so I made a start and soon discovered that Sarah's instructions and clear illustrations were enough, believe me if I can do it anyone can. In fact despite it looking complicated it's probably the quickest bag I've put together. It took me a day and a half to make so this is definitely one to try out and Sarah is such a sweetie, if you should get stuck she'll be more than happy to help you out.

Here is the schedule for the blog tour. Make sure you go round and see each one as they are all fantastic looking bags and there will be giveaways too. All the prizes for the giveaway have been very kindly provided by Sarah.

Monday, July 28th

Maria of Mia's Creations

 Niki Stringer of Roonie Ranching

 Alyssa Carrion at Keep Calm & Carrion

Tuesday, July 29th

Lynn Potts of PottsCrafty

Marilyn Brandt at Shades of Bold

Wednesday, July 30th

 Vicky Myers of Vicky Myers Creations

  Liz Schaffner at MOMENTS

 Sarah at Cozy Nest Design

Thursday, July 31st

Amy Macdonald with Friends Stitched Together

 Kathy from Handmade Dress Haven

 Judith Clauss of Judith Stitches and More

Friday, August 1st

 Jonie Brooks with Knot Sew Normal

 Lorena Rey of my way of...

 Bethany Rapp with Sweet Bee Buzzings

Here's your chance to enter my giveaway. You get a free entry just for being here and letting me confuse you LOLL plus you can earn more entries by using the widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you'd like to buy the pattern you can buy it here at http://www.cozynestdesign.com/?p=2119
and get a 25% discount up until 2nd August 2014. The code to use for your discount is bagtour.

When you leave a comment please check that I can get in touch with you. As much as I like comments I like to reply to them too. If you don't hear from me then that means you are a 'noreply' commentor.

Thanks Sarah for letting me test this brilliant bag, it was so much fun making it also a big thanks to Amy who was very patient and helpful when I got stuck with things like permalinks. I've still got so much to learn about blogging.

Best of luck to all of you with the giveaway.

Happy Sewing

~ Maria ~