I bought 2 skins of white lambskin from The Fabric Store so long ago it's embarrassing, with the plan for some kind of varsity jacket with leather sleeves. It morphed through so many ideas because it is really beautiful stuff and I didn't want to mess it up. But lately I'm just impatient with all these ideas and the years that have gone by and stash in general, and I'm really mowing through it. The desire to buy new fabric is at a strange low. Very weird.
Anyway so I did see this bag in Miss Maude in person a year or so ago. I wasn't sure I would think it was too small for my usual pursuits, but it is bigger than it looks - could hold a novel, water bottle, plus the usual junk. And I thought if I pair such a beautiful leather with this bag, I need to use this amazing Tula Pink fabric as lining. I had a piece of leather strap left from a different M & M pattern kit, and enough rivets too. I bought a zipper to match since the length was important.
The process was exceptionally painful. Leather, it ends up, has grain. It stretches. A LOT, but in only certain directions. And this smooth surfaced leather was hard to mark, for things like...pockets that have a pleat at the bottom. Sewing the pockets onto the bag was truly torture, as they didn't line up, the leather stretched, things moved, etc. The result is that the pockets are a bit lower than they should be, although I managed to get the pleated top over them. I was really worried that I was going to run out of space between the pockets, but the overall look is symmetrical despite the drama.
Sewing the body had similar issues, with the leather stretching at some points and refusing to stretch at other points.
My final confusion was how the strap is meant to insert into the side bag. This area ends up a bit open on my bag. You can see in the photos that there is a gap behind the zip, and when the zip is closed there's a gap against the tab leading to the strap. I would consider this area more durable if that were closed, but the instructions were confusing. The side tabs are made of the leather, they are quite long, and they are not interfaced. This is clearly the weakest part of the bag and will stretch too much to make me happy. Speaking as a person who will forever carry around a bunch of books...I would make this out of a very tough webbing, preferably.
I added an inside pocket because I like them. That is just the usual seaming open with a zipper and adding a piece of fabric behind it.
Final result - this is a really cute bag that I will never use. Thanks again to my friends who accept the things I make and even love them - it makes it possible for me to keep sewing whatever I want. I would consider making this again by increasing the pattern pieces by, say 40% to make a larger bag, and then I would make it out of waxed cotton, which just seems so lovely for bags but not for jackets, and I would add hooks so it could have a short strap or a cross body strap.
The other way I would consider using this is as a camera bag if the sides were made with thick padding! I'm not saying I'll never come back to the pattern, but it does seem too niche for my liking.
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