Purse Palooza :: Pattern Review: Anna Maria Horner Art Student Tote

Purse Palooza :: Pattern Review: Anna Maria Horner Art Student Tote:

This post is part of Purse Palooza 2012.

For full schedule of guest post pattern reviews and prizes, click here!

Today, I am excited to bring you a purse pattern review from Meg of Fashioned by Meg! Meg makes a lot of great sewing projects, which you can see on her blog, including a lot of childrens' clothing lately! There are also some tutorials on the site! Visit Fashioned by Meg and say hello!

1. What materials are needed to make the bag? What type of interfacing did you use?


The pattern calls for home decor or quilting weight fabrics, four sets of d rings, two short zippers, and one long zipper. I used a light weight fusible interfacing for the bag and straps.  For the bottom I used Peltex.

2. What fabrics did you use to make yours?


For my bag I used quilting cottons from Dear Stella's line, Yard Sale.  I was looking for something cheerful and bright for summer, and these definitely fit the bill!  For the inside I used a solid turquoise from Dear Stella.


2. Pattern Pieces


I made version B of this bag, which is the large bag with a drop down zipper to zip it all up!  I wanted to use tjos bag as a diaper bag, so the zipper was a must for me since I didn't want all my stuff falling out!


There were about ten or so pieces to cut out, and they were pretty straightforward to cut out.


3. Illustrations/Instructions

This pattern is pretty wordy with some diagrams to help you along.  There aren't many tricky steps though so the directions were clear enough.  Sometimes I had to read a step a few times for it to get into my head, but that might just be me. ;0p


4. Modifications

I didn't make any changes really except to the zip top.  I left the ends of the zipper exposed at one end, so that I could add a tab to make it easier to zip shut.  The change I would make if it was to make this bag again would be to shorten the extension panel with the zipper by about half.  I love that I can zip my bag up and keep everything secure but the panels are really big and go half way down the bag!  Also, there are a lot of straps to turn out, so be smarter than me and save your fingers!  Invest in a tool like this or use this tutorial in helping you get them turned quickly!


5. Difficulty Level

I would call this an intermediate pattern.  I think you want to have a couple of bags under your belt and be pretty familiar with zipper installation.


6. Conclusion


I would definitely make this bag again!  I want to make the smaller size next time.  I knew this was going to be a big bag, but this is a really, really big bag.  It is perfect for a diaper bag, but I definitely wouldn't want to carry it around as an every day bag.  Next time I also want to play around with fabric for the pockets a bit more and break it up a bit! 




Thank you, Sara, for inviting me to blog for Pursepalooza!  I love making bags, and this was the perfect motivation in helping me get a new diaper bag made!