Where I live you can't have any event with out a raffle. I discovered this a few years ago when I held a fund-raising coffee morning in memory of my mother in law. I thought it would be me and a few friends sitting around eating cake, drinking tea (or coffee) and raising money for a good cause.
Imagine my surprise when guest after guest turned up with "something for the raffle." I didn't even know I was going to be holding a raffle and had to quickly improvise some raffle tickets. They weren't pretty, but they got the job done and I learned a valuable lesson. Always have raffle tickets handy.
I have now learned to embrace the raffle and sometimes contribute something from the Craft Cave. My latest donation took inspiration from the film "The Greatest Showman." It is apparently an "awesome" film that is hugely popular, but I stopped watching after the interminable opening number. It just didn't grab me in those first ten to fifteen hours, sorry, minutes. But hey, lots of other people like it, so in a shameless jump onto the bandwagon, in aid of another good cause, I made a showman inspired bag.
A look at the publicity material suggested Barnum's coat should be my source of inspiration. The first step was to inkle a band. I created a pattern to mimic the coat's gold braid.
With the braid made it was time to turn my attention to the bag itself. I decided on a simple pouch style. Not too fancy and the right shape for an evening bag, a pencil case, a make up bag... Well, you get the idea - multifunctional. I chose a bright red wool/cotton mix for the outside, a black zip and a black quilting cotton for the lining, to keep with the colours of Barnum's costume. I cut out rectangles of fabric, interfacing,and cotton wadding, plus some smaller shapes for the zipper ends and the handle attachment tag.
The science bit
Like many of my projects I made the pattern up as I went along. The rectangles of interfacing were cut to 11 inches by 7 inches, the finished size of the bag. In choosing those proportions I was approximating to a golden ratio (which would be nearer to 11.3 by 7). The mathematical explanation of the ratio can be seen in this image. The rectangle is about 1.61 times the size of the square, so the ratio is 1:1.61.
If you continue to add more squares along the long side of the rectangle you end up with a spiral, similar to the one seen in a nautilus shell. The ratio comes up in all sorts of places and is generally considered to be a pleasing proportion. If you want to read more about the golden ratio, this is a good page. I didn't actually plan the bag using the ratio, I just cut out shapes that pleased me, so it just goes to show how ingrained the ratio is, at least in my head.
Back to the bag
Each piece had interfacings added to stabilize the fabric. A medium weight for the lining and a heavier weight for the outer layer. Then to make the bag feel nicer the lining was quilted. The quilt batting was cut to the same size as the finished bag.
End tags were added to the zip, so that the edges of the bag wouldn't have big bulges of zipper teeth and seam fabric. Then it was sandwiched between an outside piece and a lining piece, with right sides facing. Same thing for the second side. Once the zip was in place the outer and inner pieces were pressed into place and the fabric around the edge of the zip topstitched to make it nice and tidy.
With the zip in place, all that remained was to sew the bag together and add a strap made from folded pleather binding tape. I usually use an inkle band for straps, but in this case I wanted the band on the bag to be the star of the show.
If you want a step by step tutorial to make a similar bag, this one has nice clear instructions.
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