Miss Maggie for Em

I wanted to make a handbag for Em. It was one of her Christmas gifts.

I have many handbag patterns, but have only made three so far: Chris W’s Serendipity Hip, Emmaline Bags’ Craftsy Clutch Bag and Miss Maggie’s Handbag.I keep going back to the Miss Maggie’s because I really love the shape of the pattern. If you haven’t tried it, it’s a free pattern.So, it was a Miss Maggie’s again.

Even before I picked a pattern, I found this gorgeous material. I’m not even sure where I saw the material, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it was perfect. Em loves cats, and bright colors. Well, this is perfect for her

Em’s Miss Maggie’s

Here’s Em’s Miss Maggie’s:Oh, I’m loving this too.

I used iridescent hardware for this bag. I thought the shimmer of purple would go beautifully with the bright colors.

Here’s the side view:You can still see some kitties, but you can also see the black and grey material without the cats that I used for the back. It still gives some visual interest, but doesn’t take away from the front of the bag at all.

Here’s the back with the straps hanging down.I really like the back of the bag too.

I make my straps longer than the Miss Maggie’s pattern suggests. I make them long enough to make this a shoulder bag.

I also change the straps just a bit more by making them Jazzy. I read a post on Chris W.’s blog about Jazzy straps and have done this a few times now with my straps. You can read how to do it here.

One thing I learned about making Jazzy straps is to use the darker color for the part that will get the most use. I found on my Canada Miss Maggie’s that the straps were showing the most wear at the top where I’d hold them, or where I’d pick up the bag. Using a lighter color there wasn’t the best idea. It might add more pop at the top, but it also shows the most wear there too.

Dressing Up Miss Maggie’s

Miss Maggie’s Handbag doesn’t need a lot of dressing up, but she did get a couple of fun features in the hardware I used.

The first choice I made for Em’s handbag after picking out the fabric was to get the iridescent Long John strap anchors. I love these anchors and have used them most of the time I’ve made this pattern. This was the first time I used the iridescent. They add a lot of bling.Don’t they look great? I’ve also used iridescent rivets.

I bought some metallic purple faux leather from Emmaline Bags to make a tassel.That adds just a little more bling to the handbag. And this faux leather is lovely to cut. It’s very soft.

The tassel above is gold because the iridescent ones were out of stock at the time. I have since received the second iridescent tassel, and will give her both… as soon as I make that second one.

The last bit of bling had to be positioned just so.The Handmade tag had to be positioned just so one of the kitties was looking at it.

Here’s the inside of the handbag. A lot more bright colors. All the fabrics I used to make Em’s Miss Maggie’s came from the Cat-i-tude line of fabric.