Sandhill Sling Bag from Noodlehead

I'm definitely a garment sewist at heart, but every now and then I get a hankering to make a bag. Today I have an absolutely gorgeous Sandhill Sling bag, and matching wallet, to show you!

This project started with the fabric. It's from See You at Six, which is a Belgian fabric company. They periodically release collections of prints that are available on multiple bases. I've drooled over them for years, but finally took the plunge when I saw a bag made up with the Foliage Song print. I ordered mine (the base is twill) from StyleMaker Fabrics.

I asked on Instagram which pattern I should make, and Michelle at StyleMaker messaged me to say they had some great Noodlehead patterns in stock. Of course! I was drawn to the Maker Backpack, but it's exactly like my every day bag I carry now lol. Instead, I went with the Sandhill Sling.

I ordered one yard and it was plenty. I lined my bag with khaki cotton twill from my stash. The zips I already had on hand. The hardware is from Sallie Tomato and I got it from StyleMaker as well. The strap is a twill I had in my stash.

There were a few tricky bits to this bag. There is a video sew along, but I admit I didn't watch any of it, so your mileage may vary. I was never confused about the correct step, just physically unable to complete them!

The rounded corners aren't fun to do neatly, and sadly you have to do 16 of them. Just one corner wouldn't be a big deal, but making all four of them meet correctly around one rectangle was frustrating. Make sure you don't start that part unless you're well-rested and well-caffeinated!

The lining is inserted with a drop-in method, meaning you need to sew the lining to the top zipper. You can do this by hand or machine, but either way, you're going to need to hand-baste the zipper first. Because it curves in two places, it's darn near impossible to sew it without hand basting (believe me, I tried, despite the directions warning me!).

The drop-in lining means that the inside looks absolutely beautiful. There is no seam binding or whipstitching a secret hole closed. That said, I'm not sure I'd do a drop-in again. I think I would find a way to leave a hole and turn instead.

I used a piece of leather for the zipper contrast on the front pocket. It's from a giant bag of leather scraps I got at a big box store. If you use fabric here, you're meant to fold it in half, but since leather doesn't fray I used a piece that was cut in half instead.

To match my new bag, I also made a new wallet! I've been carrying a large wallet for more than a decade, and wanted something small to hold just cards. I already had the Everyday Essentials booklet from Noodlehead (used it once before for the tote bag), which contains patterns for the Minimalist Wallet and Mini Minimalist Wallet. I made the mini.

This was a quick, easy sew! Again, I used leather as an accent, and lining fabrics and a zip I had on hand. It IS fairly bulky around the edges, next time I would use something lighter than a twill for the inside pockets. 

You can kind of see in the photos how rounded and lumpy the edges are. This is even after I whacked them with a hammer to flatten them more. Don't suggest I add topstitching--I think it would kill my machine. Like I said, a lighter weight for the inners would help. Through the middle it's 8 layers of fabric plus a couple layers of interfacing.

I'm so happy with this set! The sling bag stays in place better than a backpack, and the wallet is small enough to sneak into our pool bag. Do you stick to garment sewing, or do you also sew bags?