It's really quite obvious...

Had noone ever realised before me that you can patchwork in a pocket? Surely I can't be the first, but I couldn't find anyone else having done it. It's really quite obvious now - I wonder why noone has before. Maybe other people can be bothered doing those nice inside out ones that you just sew on flat, but they'd always annoyed me.

The pockets are 10 cm wide with one centimetre of sticky-outey-ness and 1.5cm of space between the top of the pocket and the flap. The handles are sewn into the seams just like the pieces for the pockets are.

Anyway, tonight, I got home, read the new Top Gear magazine for a bit, got to my laptop, was gunna get into a pretty hardcore Bejewelled sesh and may brain went "um, if you don't mind, I've worked out a pocket for you to try. Could you test it now please, before I forget?"

Magnet clasps because I remembered where I put them when I bought them this time. You can kinda see the point where the bits join together in the middle.

My brain is really really polite. And smart too. It worked out sizes, and angles, and where to put the magnet clasps. I'm not sure when it did all this, since all I had to do tonight was cut and iron and sew, but it all works. Unfortunately, my brain let me pick the fabric. And I went with some less than stellar quality stripey cotton that I got from the Salvos over a year ago. That was made in Brazil. That I am loving the look of in real life, but which, bad news for the blogosphere, doesn't really show up my lovely pockets in the photos.

I pieced it all together across first - the piece that is the back of the pockets means it's thickest coming off of them, so I pressed all my seams away from the pockets and sewed just to the sides of the seams so they'll stay flat. Then I did the same with the top and bottom bits - on the top one I put the tops of the pockets and the straps into the seams.

I really should do up a proper tutorial for these bags. They are the bomb, and endlessly customisable, and really quite easy, for all that they take forever. It would be a good excuse to make lots and lots of them. With all sorts of different pockets. And one with no pockets, that can be quilted, and is way quicker and easier. But not as cool as this will be.

The back of the pockets - the gap between the two pockets was 2 cm and I use 1cm seams when I'm making bags, which is why you can't see a gap. Extra stitching to secure the handles can be seen at the top.

Of course, this is still just one side of the outside of a bag. And I* came up with an idea for revised end pockets a few days ago, which I might try tomorrow.

Except it's Wednesday. Which means it's maccas night (it's a work thing) and I won't get home till after midnight.

I'm feeling glad I have the weekend off.

*If it appears in my consciousness fully formed without me having actively worked on it, it was my brain, not me. If I'm sitting, looking at previous versions of the bag and discussing with a friend how I could make them better, it was me.