DIY Over Shoulder Bag

Over shoulder bag

DIY Over Shoulder Bag

The point of this blog, always has, and always will be about making clothes and accessories by recycling, up-cycling or DIY fashion. This easy DIY Over Shoulder Bag was made out of leftover fabric from – this rain poncho – and – this kimono jacket.

It’s a great bag for a night out when all you need is a credit card or some cash, a mobile phone and a roll of lipstick. It slips over your shoulder and is light. The bonus is – it was free – as I used up left-over fabric.

Here’s how to make it.

You need: –

• fabric
• matching colour thread
• tape or ribbon for strap or make your own see below
• pom-pom or tape or braid to embellish
• matching colour thread
• sewing machine
• sewing scissors
• pins
• tape measure

You do: –

Decide how big you want your bag to be. My final bag – sewn up – is 17 centimetres wide and 20 centimetres high. My pattern pieces were 60 centimetres long by 20 centimetres wide.

My strap was 160 centimetres long. You can make a strap using left-over fabric by sewing as in the photo below.

I had to sew pieces of my animal print fabric together to get a big enough piece so please ignore the seam in that fabric.

This bag needs to be firm. Which is why I used two pieces of fabric as my animal print piece was too light. Make sure your two pieces are the same size.

Press or iron your two pieces of fabric. They must be perfectly flat for this part. Trim your inner piece of fabric. Fold over the outer piece of fabric and hem the ends.

Fold over 1/3 of your bag. Pin your strap to the sides. You are going to sew the strap into the side hem so it’s secure. Now fit your bag and check you are happy with the length. if not, adjust now. Then sew the sides.

Turn your bag right side out and fold the side pieces of the flap. I make an envelope fold on the corners and pinned them in place before sewing. Hem your flap.

This section you can ignore and leave your bag plain. Or have loads of fun. You can make rows of bright coloured tape, use pom poms as I did here, sew beads, coins, an applique, whatever you fancy to the flap of your bag.

And that’s it. One fun party bag – in the bag – so to speak.

More next week. Until then keep warm or cool depending on where in the world you are.

Greenie.