The Impatient Sewist

I went to Cross the Tracks last year, a one-day jazz, soul & funk festival in Brixton. It was the late May bank holiday we had brilliant weather, the perfect opportunity to wear my summer makes!

The night before the festival, I noticed the A4 bag-size limitation. I didn’t have any bags that fit the bill – small enough to take inside, large enough to take everything you need for spending the whole day at a festival! This is not just a phone/keys/wallet situation – I come prepared for anything.

In 12 hours before I left the house, I made the executive decision to design my own bag. My self-imposed demands were as follows:

• Secure pocket for wallet & cash
• Ability to dance (this rules out totes)
• Big enough to fit all my stuff

And here is the result:

The bag has a zipped pocket at the back which means your wallet is both zipped and hidden from view. The base is pretty spacious and it fit my 500ml sports bottle without a problem. Additionally it fit a blazer, sun cream, wallet, phone charger and and plasters. There’s nothing like a day or dancing to stress-test a bag and I was pretty chuffed with the results.

After the festival I tweaked it for version 2 – I lengthened the bag to increase the fold-over area and added adjustable straps. Since then I’ve made another 2 more, and found that it’s a great scrapbuster – especially for the remnants I tend to collect and struggle to use. It’s a pretty quick sew, which made me think I should turn it into a pattern!

Below you can find the files. It’s my first sewing pattern and if anyone decides to make it, I’d love to know what you think!