Rainbow Foil Camouflage Bucket Bag

Of all the fabric I ordered from FabricMart in January, the most 100% impulsive choice was a black synthetic knit with a foiled design, bearing multi-color splotches on silver foil, and the foil laid down in camouflage blobs.  And, since it was $1/yard (and I was ordering other things--specifically, more of the apple print--so shipping costs would be distributed), I got silly and ordered ten yards of it.  Yes, as a knit, it's 60" wide.  The quantity of this fabric is mildly overwhelming.

Also, after taking the time to figure out what to do with all of the apple print--for which I had at least the one plan, when I ordered it each time--I did not want to spend a lot of time trying to use up all of this fabric at once.  It would be fine in the stash until inspiration hit.  But.  I still wanted to make at least one thing from it before putting it away.

And, while I honestly probably will make a jacket from a bit of it, eventually, like I did with some of the other foiled knits from the same manufacturer (here and here), I didn't want to do that now.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear, my mind settled on making a bucket bag.  I'm not sure if I've ever even owned a bucket bag before, let alone made one.  I definitely don't have a pattern for one, but, after looking at bucket bags for sale, and at blogs showing how to make them, I felt confident enough to start cutting a bunch of rectangles and a few circles and start sewing things together.

 

 I think it turned out OK.

I based the size of the entire thing on one size of dinner plate we have, so I could use a plate to draw the circle for the bottom.  Then I used an online calculator to figure out the circumference and guessed what a reasonable height would be.  I used those dimensions, plus seam allowance, and a ruler to draw a rectangle with tailor's chalk on the back of the fabric.  Everything else was just...sorta improvised off of that.

This is completely normal for how I make bags and purses, unlike the previous project where I actually used a commercial pattern.

I believe that part of why I decided to make a bucket bag was so I could use the largest size of grommet I have, along with an opportunity to use the grommet press (which I almost never use to set grommets, but instead to set snaps.)

When I got to the end of the project and decided to sew some fabric to the ends of the twill tape drawstrings (both to finish them and to make sure the whole drawstring can't easily be removed), I realized I could use the die cutter to cut some stars to attach to the tape ends.

The stars were bulked up with interfacing (there is so much interfacing in this project, attached to the back of every piece of fabric involved), then tacked to both sides of the twill tape with fusible webbing, then all layers stitched through.  Those stars aren't going anywhere, and that drawstring is not going to accidentally slither out of the grommets.

I know most bucket bags have the drawstring made from the same material as the rest of the bag, but I did not feel like turning this fabric into the appropriate shape.  I got a spool of the twill tape when I got the grommet setter, thinking I was going to start making corsets.  I have not made corsets (although I am still thinking about it), so I have plenty of twill tape to spare.

I wanted the bottom to be considerably more firm than the rest of the bag, so it has: the foiled knit backed with interfacing, two layers of heavy embroidery stabilizer + two layers of a stabilizing fabric (the pink striped heavy cotton used in the previous bag) with a layer of interfacing on each of those and then those layers of heavier materials attached to each other with fusible webbing and trimmed to fit down into the sewn bottom, where I further stitched it in place by stitching in the ditch around the seam.

And then there's lining inside, which also has interfacing fused to the back.

It's still floppy, but not nearly as floppy as the knit fabric alone.

I sewed all the tabs holding the D-rings through all layers.  The small D-rings are on twill tape, and the larger ring is on grosgrain ribbon.  Everything came from my stash, so I couldn't be too picky, which, yes, is why the small rings are also gold tone, even though everything else is silver tone.  Given the nature of the print, I thought it wouldn't be too obvious.

The nylon webbing strap itself, complete with the clips on the ends, also came from my stash as-is.  I had started the bag with only the idea of applying the small D-rings, to use with the strap as a cross-body bag (I generally only use cross-body bags, and that's probably the only reason I have never accidentally left a purse anywhere.)  However, my research into bucket bags showed that most of them have some sort of convertible strap aspect, so I went back and sewed the last large D-ring on, at the bottom of the center back, to allow a shoulder bag/backpack configuration.

It was a little challenging to sew that on there, but I only had to pick some of the stitches out and try again once, after finding that the lining had not been as flat as I thought it was.  Since I only wanted to sew strap attachments through all layers, this was the only point in construction when I could have done it anyway, so I was determined to make it work.

 There's one pocket on the inside.  The pocket itself has the knit, interfacing, the pink stripe (can't remember if I interfaced that, too), and the lining fabric, interfaced.  I layered the interfaced lining over the middle layer of the interfaced stripe fabric, and sewed the pocket through all layers of that.  Why, yes, I have had pockets shred apart the lining of commercially-made purses, so I might be overcompensating a bit here.

Purely for decoration, I pressed some of the twill tape in half and applied it to the top edge of the pocket.

I didn't get any clear pictures of it, but I did make a spacer...keeper...thing? that the cords go through after exiting the grommets .  It's rather rough looking, but I honestly didn't want to cut any more fabric to try again, so I went with it anyway.

If I make any bucket bags again--which, genuinely, is a big "if"--I'll probably make them shorter, since the finished item feels a little tall to me.

But it still turned out fine!  And ridiculous, due to the fabric.  I asked if The Child wanted anything made from it, and was given the opinion that this fabric is just ugly, and not even ironically enjoyable.  I disagree--well, yeah, it is hideous, but still ironically enjoyable for me.  And, whenever I get an idea for something else to make from it, there'll be more than enough of it left.