Barbados Bag

I've been wanting to make this cross-body bag since I was down in Texas and my cousin did a Facebook post about making one. The #120 Barbados Bag was designed by Pink Sand Beach Designs. And calls for 1/2 yds or fat quarters (depending on where they're used in the bag) of 4 fabrics plus a half yard of a lining fabric.

I have such a problem committing to fabric choices but was able to find everything I needed in my stash and in my favourite colours, too!

The bag took me a long time to make.  I only had written instructions and I do much better being shown or having a video to watch. Cutting and labelling the pieces took over an hour. I used masking tape labels as I knew I'd get confused otherwise. That worked very well for me.

It basically took a whole day, but here it is.

It has a zipper pocket in the front and a zipper closure on the top.

 I made a piece of double fold fabric for the zipper pull

and a little key charm for the front pocket zipper pull.

The back has two deep pockets, perfect for business envelopes.

I lined the bag and the front pocket with lime green fabric that coordinates with the main fabric. There is a deep pocket above the front zipper pocket.

I used a heavier zipper for the top of the bag thinking it would get much more wear and tear than the front pocket would.

There are two small pockets inside.

I probably could have cut half an hour to an hour off the completion time as I made a couple of mistakes that required a lot of picking out of stitches. The next bag won't take nearly as long. The pattern could easily be changed to make a wider bag.

It could also be made with an adjustable strap using D-rings and a swivel clip. I chose not to do that for this first one. The only thing I would have done differently is I would have top-stitched along the top by the zipper. The design also called for two lines of top-stitching on either side of the zipper on the front pocket.

Only one is really needed. I was also supposed to do this double top-stitching along the strap and I only did one.

The finished bag measured 25cm wide (10") and 28cm (11" long). With boxing the corners, the bottom was 20cm (8") wide. My iPad mini in its case fits with room to spare.