Natasha's Bag and Badge!

This is the bag/sling/tote I made for my girl Natasha, for her Birthday!  Happy Birthday Sweetiepie!

You might recognize this awesome orangey-brown leather from this past project:

Yes!  This was a leather trench coat!  You might remember that I cut out the middle part and made myself a leather and blue velvet bag, retaining the belt loops and button front.  I still had the top half and bottom half left over so I made Natasha's bag using up the bottom half.

I used the same vintage army canvas I gushed about using for my own bag.  And I also used a tweaked version of the same pattern as well.

This is the lining and small inside pocket of the bag.  I used a vintage mushroom fabric.  I ran out of "tree wood grain" fabric so the mushrooms were the next best thing.

(Yesterday I did manage to procure 5+ more yards of the wood grain fabric for future projects.  Thanks Mom!!)

A peek inside the finished bag.

Here is Natasha opening the box that had her bag in it.  See the, "What the heck is in here?" look.  She had no idea I was picking her up to go have dinner with our friends.  She got a few surprises this night!

She looked happy when she realized there was a leather bag in there for her!  I didn't get any photos of her holding it but she seemed to like it. 

Did you notice her Birthday Badge in the photos above?  Here is a better view:

And a close-up:

"It's My Birthday & this is My Party!"

Once again I used a vintage milk cap to form the base of the badge, just like I did here.  I scrunched the crepe paper into a ruffled circle and glued it to the back of the milk cap, added "ribbon" to hang down, sewed a nice pin to a piece of felt and then glued the felt to the back to make it a badge.

You could make a birthday badge out of almost anything.

They are fun and festive and necessary so

make some!

Work continues in the Smashing Rubbish Studios!

I have a few more bags in the works, some different styles,one "carpet bag" made from a vintage rug remnant, and more made from oil paintings.

Working on a "Haunted House,"

xox

Jennette