Keyka Lou Bucket Bag

Kittens, I have been a ball of anxiety lately and yesterday, I reached the point that I had to DO SOMETHING, or I just may die. Seriously.

I needed something quick and would yield a finished object in little time.

I needed something that would use pre-existing supplies and not cost too much for a pattern.

I needed something different then I've worked on before.

And most importantly, it had to be something useful...and to my taste.

I set my mind to sew myself a new bag, and for a long time I've been eying Keyka Lou's designs. (It just so happens that she's having an anniversary sale right now if you're in the market for a new bag as well.) I've had this inexpensive brown corduroy sitting in stash for forever now; I honestly have no idea when I bought it or why I did. It's always been there. After assessing that I had just under a half yard of the fabric, I decided to make a Bucket Bag. I bought the pattern, printed it out to the correct size, and then played around a bit with what I had in stash until I was happy.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results. The only way I could be any more happy would be if I had enough corduroy for the front pocket to be brown as well. Everything in this project--minus the corduroy-- is a leftover from one of my current projects, and it uses this adorable fabric I reclaimed from a Gymboree shirt I bought for The Girl and she never had a chance to wear. Who doesn't love ponies on some level or another?

Ponies. ♥

I've never sewn a bag before, and I'm sure I've denigrated my own sewing skills enough on this blog to paint the picture that I'm not a very experienced sewer. If I haven't, let me say it loud and clear: I AM NOT A VERY EXPERIENCED OR CAREFUL SEWER. My work is sloppy, and the eagle eyed out there will be able to see spots that I fudged or didn't get things quite right.

Overall, I'd say I did a pretty good job.







And for as much as I hate to get bogged down in putzy details, I really enjoy top stitching.

Even for someone like me, this pattern was pretty easy to follow and produced a pleasing result. I had a couple of places that I became stuck, but after reading through a few times and looking more closely at the provided pictures, I figured it out and was able to move along. I want to say this bag took 4-5 hours from beginning to end.

I definitely recommend these for anyone.