The whole thing started when I saw a tote bag on Vinted. It was a simple bag, with a cat design on it, made of denim, or at least at that time I thought it was made of denim. Although I'm not a cat fan, the design looked really interesting, so I bookmarked it, just in case. Shortly I got notified that the tote bag got sold. Not a tragedy, as I didn't want to buy it anyway.
The a bit later I saw another one got listed, with the exact same design. This made me suspicious, so I had a better look to see what I'm missing. It was a white fabric with a cat on it, the cat being made of off cut denim pieces and what seemed strange was that the second bag had the exact same fabric pieces. I've been working with denim for years and trust me, there's no way on Earth, to create two identical pieces using used denim, so I messaged the seller for more details. Turned out it was a 2D print, which explains why the seller has so many of these identical bags.
Regardless, maybe even better I'd say, as I saw an opportunity right away and here it is. Today I'm going to show you the real version of the design. You can see the original, or where I got the idea from, here. I hope it doesn't get sold and taken down till I publish my post.
Meet the cat bag. I call it the Gimli bag, but it has less importance now.
It took me a week of thinking, before I started working on it. I needed to figure out what and how as this is not exactly easy. First I had to draw a cat, to fir the size of the bag and. As you know, I have no talent and my biggest fear was that my so called cat would look like a dog or a horse. This is what I managed to draw. Before I used it, made sure to ask a few people's opinion, to see if it looks like a cat indeed and got the go ahead. Today I see I need to make some changes, but I think the outcome is acceptable.
The next step was to create a cardboard template, so I can have some guidance, where to place the pieces.
Next step was to cut a 40cm x 40cm piece and apply interfacing, to make it keep its shape at the end. This step is very important for me as without it, the bag looks like a rag.
So I draw the cat on the denim and started building the cat. This was the hardest part and today I would do it differently as I know the mistakes I made.
Aaaand voilà! The cat bag, or the cat as the bag still wasn't finished at that point.
For the straps, I chose to mix dark blue with light, marble like denim, because the cat had some marble fabrics too.
I made the lining a bit funny, with different type of fabrics. For me, this is normal, but let's see what others will say.
The back is plain and simple. I didn't want to over complicate it.
Here's the interior, with the two big pockets, for phone, napkins, keys and whatever you need to carry all day. The other side is simple, no pockets, because there was no matching fabric left. I need to visit the charity shop, to see if I can find good quality, cheap shirts for the rest of the bags I'm planning to create.
There's more to come as I need to use off cut fabrics I have and make rook in my drawers. I have too much of these fabrics and don't want to just get rid of it.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
