Recently my mom asked if I would make her a Tudor Bag from fabric she already had. Of course I said yes! I made this same bag for myself when I tested the pattern for Sara of Sew Sweetness in November of 2014. I’ve used it as my main purse ever since. (Although now I’m switching it up with the two Polaris Bags I made last month!) The Tudor Bag is so roomy and has lots of pockets; It’s the perfect bag for me.
Mom and I decided to make a few changes to the bag. She needed a bag to hold her sheet music while going to rehearsals with the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra. Her sheet music is large, so she needed the bag taller than the pattern called for. I increased the height of the bag from 12-1/2″ tall to 15″ tall. Mom also wanted to omit the zippered top in case some of her sheet music was longer than 15″. Mom wants to use the interior pockets to divide her various music pieces, so I did not sew a dividing line on either pocket to make two slip pockets on each side; Instead there is one large pocket on each side of the interior. Since that effectively reduced her four interior pockets to only two pockets, I added an interior zippered pocket.
Another addition to the bag was a Key Holder. Mom said she likes having a place to hook her keys just inside her bag, so I made sure to put one in there for her. It was my first time making anything like that, and I think it turned out nice!
I purchased some black sparkle vinyl from Fabric.com about 6 months ago, and I decided to use it for the accent fabric. That also required a modification to the bag handles because I did not want to piece the vinyl to make one long strap for each side. I like the way the handles look with the rectangular rings.
All of these pattern modifications were fun! I’ve submitted them as a Pattern Hack to Sara of Sew Sweetness since she accepted my request to be part of her Pattern Hack Posse. We’ll see if she accepts the pattern hacks and posts them!
Linking up with:
TGIFF hosted by Mary of Fleur de Lis Quilts
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop hosted by Confessions of a Fabric Addict
WHOOMP There IT Is hosted by A Quilted Passion
Finish It Up Friday hosted by Crazy Mom Quilts
Stitch ALL The Things 
Make me one….. (said with a whiny voice!) This is awesome. I like the changes and the fabrics all of it. LeeAnna at not afraid of color
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Thanks so much, LeeAnna! I feel my bag making skills are improving with every bag I finish. I am really happy with that! Thanks so much for stopping by!
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Your mom is so cute! And the bag looks fantastic. I especially love those music notes!
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Thanks! I was happy to find that Hobby Lobby had a Treble Clef charm there so I could add a little musical bling to match all the music notes on the bag!
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Excellent job Christine. I know your mom just loves it!
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Thank you! I was very happy when she sent me that picture of her holding the bag! I can tell she definitely liked it!!
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That bag is awesome! Ditto what Leanne said!! LOL As a quilter afraid to make the leap into bag making – I am totally impressed! You have some mad bag making skills!! And I just love that picture of your mom – yup, she definitely likes it!
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Thank you so much, Judy! I started out quilting myself and can not remember exactly why I started with bag making. I enjoy doing both very much though… and that creates a bit of a problem for me. I have to start each week trying to figure out which WIP to work on! Quilting or bag making… and most times it’s just too hard to choose between the two! LOL!!!
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Christine, awesome job! I love a bag with a light interior so you can see all the way down to the bottom! The added key holder is so nice too!
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Thank you very much, Paige! I do like lighter interiors as well. This one was so white though that I repeatedly washed my hands to ensure I didn’t get the fabric dirty. Thankfully I succeeded with keeping it clean! Thank you for stopping by and commenting!
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Fantastic work! I made one of these for my mum for Christmas so I know just how much work has gone into it – well done!
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Thank you! I love this pattern and I bet your mum was excited to get hers too!
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Great fabric choices – love the way you did the straps and bottom with vinyl and hardware. The interior key holder looks like it has two rivets at the top. How did you do that, is there something stiff like peltex behind it?
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Thank you! I probably should have put some Peltex behind it, but it felt pretty solid as it was. I sewed it to the interior fabric (which was interfaced with SF101) first. I decided to add the two rivets just for extra stability in case mom’s keys were heavy. Since I was punching through the layers of the key holder (four layers of fabric thick, plus it was interfaced with SF101) as well as the interfacing, their wasn’t much room for any other fabrics before I capped the rivets. The rivet press I have really seats them well together, much better than when I was using my rivet setting tools. Also, since I placed the key holder near the top of the bag I figured it wouldn’t make the lining sag since the top stitching was only an inch and a half above the key holder. But now that you mention it, next time I might put a piece of Peltex behind it… just in case!
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Thanks for explaining. I’m just learning to make bags and these little things make all the difference between a homemade or a professional hand crafted look. I love being able to learn so much by seeing how other people do things.
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No problem! I learn something new with every bag I make. What I found really helpful was joining the various bag making Facebook groups. You may have found and joined some already. A lot of pattern designers have their own groups, like Sew Sweetness, Alicia Miller of Swoon, Emmaline Bags, MrsH, ChrisW, etc. There’s a great general bag making group called PDF Love of Bags. Two other groups I also enjoy are the Bag of the Month Club and B.A.G. (Bag Addicts Group). I find all of these groups a great place for encouragement and inspiration. I learn a lot from the other bag makers there and the pattern designers are all very helpful with any questions about their patterns. I hope this information is helpful! Have a great day!
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Oh wow! First, thanks for linking up to TGIFF (and for the shoutout). I’ve had great making the rounds to everyone and I’m especially happy to see your fabulous bag. The smile on your mom’s face says it all…she definitely LOVES it. All of the special touches and custom changes are going to make a huge difference in how much use she gets from it. But now, prepare yourself to make a few more–you know some of her choir-mates are going to want their own! Who wouldn’t? I say sell ’em! Now that you have the math worked out (always the hardest part for me) you can assembly line those babies! Already you have two potential orders. Actually I might be a third even though I can’t sing a whit! I just like the bag!
Thanks again for linking up. TGIFF appreciates it.
Mary @ http://fleurdelisquilts.blogspot.com
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Thanks so much for stopping by, Mary… I appreciate you hosting the link up this week. Mom told me to prepare myself for some orders too. That’s an exciting thought! I had to let her know that we are going to be traveling over the summer though, so I won’t be able to make any until August. Hopefully there will still be some interest by then! Have a wonderful week and thanks again for stopping by!
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HI
It looks great,
Can I ask when you made the height 15 is there anything else you increase? I would like to purchase the pattern but the few extra inches would be perfect like you did. Im an intermediate sewer so I’m not familiar with how to increase patterns. I’m looking to make a bag for Disney world in August. Also do you think it would be,possible,to,add straps to make this convertible to a backpack also.
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Yes, there are several things I did to adjust the pattern. I made this bag for my mom, but also to write a Pattern Hack post for Sara of Sew Sweetness. She will be posting all of the changes I made to the bag, as well as instructions with step-by-step photos of the process on June 10th! That’s also why I can’t really talk about my changes I made here…yet. I have been anxiously waiting for my turn in her Pattern Hack series, so your question is almost perfectly timed. I will put a note in my calendar to email you the link to the post when it goes live.
I’ve never made a back-pack bag, but I can’t imagine it would be difficult to convert the straps to a back pack by using different hardware when assembling the straps. Maybe some triangle or d-rings on the bag straps, and just use swivel hooks on the straps, as well as adding some additional strap connectors with triangle/d-rings toward the bottom of the bag?? That way you can just hook the bag handles wherever you like to either carry it as a bag or wear it as a back-pack?
I would highly recommend purchasing this pattern. It really is adaptable to any changes/additions you want to make. I hope this helps!!
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Thanks so much christine that’s great! I just came across Sewsweetness Facebook page and joined so I will be on the lookout for your revised pattern. I also inquired about the backpack straps but I think I would easily be able to add them near the bottom like you mentioned
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The Sew Sweetness page is a great resource for help! I just had the thought that you might want to put an adjustable slider on each bag handle, so that you could adjust the straps when they were being used as backpack straps…? I wish I had a pattern that converted to a backpack so I could see how it’s done, but you’ll probably get much better answers from the group anyway. And I’d have the ends of those backpack strap adapters under the top edge of the accent fabric so that the raw ends are hidden and you get some extra stability by the top-stitching of the accent fabric.
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Hi, Linda! The pattern hack posted this morning and you can find it HERE.
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