Super Cute Messenger Bag

With only a month left of school to go last spring, my daughter's backpack just pretty much disintegrated.  Straps, handles, and zippers were breaking left and right. I decided she couldn't wait until next year for a new one and really didn't want to shell out a bunch of money (sheesh, backpacks are expensive) for another one that will fall apart. So I started a hunt online to see if I could find an easy tutorial for some sort of bag I could make.  After much searching I found this fabulous messenger bag . 

It was perfect! The tutorial was very thorough and easy to follow, and I'm probably maybe a beginner-intermediate sewer. My only problem came with the interfacing. I had about as heavy as you can get interfacing and for-the-life-of-me, I could not get the handle turned. I had to peel the interfacing off and put on a lighter weight interfacing. I also had a little trouble in the same way with the flap, but eventually got it turned and luckily my tear is on the inside. I just told my daughter not to ever let her teacher see the inside of the bag. :) It was a fun little project and only took a few hours. Now another daughter has just informed me she wants one for school this year, too. Mark that down as one more thing to jam into the next week and a half.

Oh, a couple other notes to mention, the bag is big enough to fit a folder in (exact dimensions are in tutorial), perfect for a grade-schooler, but not really big enough for my older jr. high daughter (who REALLY wants one) who's bringing home lots of books and stuff. I also made the flower from this tutorial as a pin so I can remove it to wash the bag if I need to.


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