I seem to be on a bit of a bag-sewing binge lately. Here’s a bag I made from a fun dragon print.

The pattern is a free download from kokka-fabric.com. It’s in Japanese, but there are illustrations of the assembly and measurements to cut the pieces. You can find their free downloadable patterns here, and this bag pattern here.

I chose to cut the pocket from the accent fabric, because the dragons were big enough that it would look silly if they didn’t match up. I then sewed a strip of dragon fabric along the top edge of the pocket to finish it, and also sewed in a ribbon loop with a clasp and a charm. The ribbon is long enough that I can put my keys on the clasp, then tuck them inside the pocket. Lots of reflections on that shiny pleather pocket in the picture! In real life, the charm really snaps against it.

One thing I liked about this design was that the two strap pieces are cut in slighlty different widths. It doesn’t specify on the pattern, but clearly the wider one should be of the contrast fabric so there’s a little peek of it around the outside edge of each strap as a contrast. It’s tough to see in black on black, but the pleather is shiny.

Using black faux-leather as the contrast was a challenging choice. Not just black on black, but it’s slippery and you can’t really iron it. Pressing down seam allowances isn’t an option because it will melt. I cut fusible knit interfacing to the finished width of the straps and applied it to the pleather using a pressing cloth. That worked brilliantly to help me fold the fabric in the right place and also made for a nice finished strap.

I used heavy quilting cotton both for the outside and the lining, but the bag is a little more flimsy than I’d prefer. (It might specify a heavier weight of fabric in the Japanese instructions.) I’m going to make another in a different quilting cotton and interface the entire outside of the bag. I’ll show you that when it’s done.

In the meantime, what do you think?