I recently finished a new bag! This is the Firefly Tote by Anna Graham of Noodlehead.
I’ve made several of Anna’s bag designs over the years — the 241 Tote, Range Backpack, Poolside Tote, Social Tote, and Road Trip Case — and was excited to tackle this latest pattern. Bag-making can get real complicated, real fast, and her patterns are always well-organized and clear. There are cutting checklists and cutting diagrams and piece labels, plus instructions nicely divided into sections that make sense.
I used Big Sur Canvas by Robert Kaufman for the exterior. This is one of the fabrics Anna recommends, and it worked well for me. I had a bit of difficulty getting the interfacing to fully fuse to the canvas, but with a lot of heat and repeated pressing, it eventually worked!
The front of the bag features both zipper and slip pockets, cleverly stacked one on top of the other. I wanted to use a metal zipper, so I ordered one to match the exterior from ZipIt. The smiley accent fabric is from Kim Kight’s Anagram collection for Ruby Star Society, and the lining fabric is some old school Cotton + Steel that had been sitting in my stash for years. It was nice to put it to use!
There’s another slip pocket on the inside, and the whole bag has a fun drawstring closure. I really loved how this feature worked well with that fun accent fabric — in fact, this unique drawstring top is what made me want to make the bag in the first place!
Anna includes a lot of details in her bags that really elevates the final look, like leather straps and rivets. So while I could have made the straps from fabric or webbing and sewed them down, I decided to push myself this time. I ordered the leather straps from Anna’s shop, and rivets plus a leather punch and rivet-setting tools from Emmaline Bags. I practiced on a scrap piece, took a deep breath, and tackled the actual bag. And it worked great! I’m happy to have a new skill, and a super polished bag finish.
Cute! Can’t wait to tote it somewhere soon.
Funny that we’ve both made several of Anna’s bags, but this is the first we’ve both made. Yours is terrific. And I agree about those rivets- the perfiect finishing touch, and not difficult at all!
The leather accents look so good! What a lovely tote. I can’t help but think how much my old cat buddy would have loved those drawstrings (he loved rubbing and inspecting all bags, but those strings would have been so much fun for him). 🙂