Week 19 or Reversible boutique bag

No long story of my life this week, but I am proud of the bag. At last, an intentional bag finished on time.

There are a couple of lovely consignment stores downtown, and they like to wrap things up nicely, maybe to make up for the fact that you're buying second hand, but more likely because they really like clothes and they treat their customers well. I feel guilty every time they wrap something in pretty tissue paper only to have me shove it in the plastic bag I carry around in my pocketbook. I also don't like taking another giant sturdy paper bag, because I have a whole closet full of them already.

So I took one of those bags and used it as the pattern for this one. I was going for a bag that would look good being carried to the limo by the bellhop at the Plaza. A sleek black lined with a Lily Pulitzer print might have been more appropriate, but this is what I had on hand, and I think it works well enough.

I used some sturdy black ticking for one layer and fresh yellow quilting weight cotton for the other. There's a layer of painted canvas sewn into the bottom to stiffen it and all the layers are sewn together to keep them from shifting and to make turning the bag inside-out easier. The handles are a shiny webbing that looks good either way. I might use a double layer of grosgrain ribbon next time, just to have something wider and more colorful.