A friend sent me a photo on FB of a bag which she wanted me to make. It's not a pattern that I have done before but I took up the challenge anyway.

I could not make an exact copy in case I might get sued for copyright, not that I am that good to make an exact replica! LOL! But I showed her the Maisie Bowler Bag which I made earlier, which my sister-in-law Eina is now the proud owner, and asked her if that design appealed to her, I will make it in a size big enough to fit in her laptop as that is what she intends to use the bag for.

As soon as she gave me the confirmation on the design based on the Maisie Bowler bag and the choice of colours and fabrics, I immediately started work on it, using my newly bought Abang Sado Singer Heavy Duty sewing machine.

Abang Sado had no problems going through the thickness, but I could not stitch as close to the buckle as I would like it to be. The position of the needle on the Singer could not be moved as close as possible to the buckle as I wanted it to. The postion of the needle on my Janome can be moved very close to the buckle without the feet hitting the buckle.

Since the Singer is more of a mechanical sewing machine where you can't precisely move the needle position, I went ahead to just stitch as close to the buckle as I could get, and added rivets to further secure the handle connectors.

For the handles, I used faux leather which I sewed using the Singer. It has no problem at all handling the thick layers of faux leather. I didn't even need to use a Teflon feet.

I had fun sewing the rows of brightly coloured fabrics together. I wouldn't mix them together if I didn't have a sample to follow, but after seeing the photo my friend sent, I was amazed at how beautiful all the contrasting colours came together!

This bag fits a 15" laptop with still plenty of space for other things. Just don't add too many heavy stuff as the bag is not made to carry tonnes of heavy things except a laptop and maybe stationary, and a book or 2.

I hope my friend likes it even though it isn't an exact replica of the bag she wanted but it is almost exactly like the Maisie Bowler bag but in a bigger size.