My bag and I were honoured to appear on Johanna’s blog after our excursion to the new Stoff och Stil store last weekend! I thought I’d write up a bit about the creation of the bag.

This was based on a handbag I got for my birthday, that has been used and abused and has started to fall apart. In particular, where coffee sacking was used on the original bag, it was sewn into a weight-bearing seam, and the loose weave of the sack just began to give way. So in my version, I bound the sack pieces with bias binding first, then sewed it onto one solid piece of denim that actually bears the load.

The other problem with the original bag was a total lack of pockets. So I added an external coin pocket with a zip, two internal pockets, and a loop to hold my keys. So now I can actually find my phone/wallet/keys/lip balm when I want them, without dumping out the entire contents of the bag in wild frustration.

I made this using a coffee bean sack from Mauritz Kaffe (25 kronor), an old pair of maternity jeans, and an old sheet bought from a flea market in London. The pockets and zip are recycled from the jeans and I made my own bias binding from the sheet. My only problems with the construction were due to the jeans being stretch, which made it hard to get some seams nice and flat. But it feels sturdy and is big enough for all the pens, nappies, baby hats and socks, mints, receipts and old shopping lists that I am usually carrying around.