Estelle bag giveaway.

That this bag has got finished in the last couple of days is nothing short of a miracle. Usually I get about an hour's sewing time a day, when Benjy has his afternoon sleep. He sleeps, I sew, we're both refreshed by the end of it. But the last 3 days he has not slept. Not morning, not afternoon, and awoken screaming every 2 hours over night. Because of a cold. A COLD. Honestly, when males get sick the whole world has to listen to the grizzling and it starts young.

But enough! TMB has taken him out for a walk and so I get some peace to write this. This bag is my first attempt at the Estelle bag, a free pattern available from Burdastyle. Its well drafted, and comes with "instructions." I say that in commas because if you didn't know how to sew the bag before you started you'd be none the wiser after reading the instructions. Oh well, hey, a free pattern and pretty nice of her to go to all the effort of drafting and writing a guide anyway. So I'm not complaining, just, perhaps, warning you if you have any plans to give it a crack yourself.

The story behind this fabric is a funny one. The outer is pure wool, and woven, top quality and only $2 a metre at a designer clearance sale. (US $1 at today's exchange rate, US 50 cents at tomorrow's) Bargain bargain bargain. It was too big to lug around, but I wanted to look through all the stock, because there was a bit of a queue at the till. So I kept looking, but had a nagging feeling, "grab that fabric."

"Ridiculous!" I thought to myself. "There's plenty on that bolt, more than enough for everyone." Still I had that nagging feeling to grab it. So I went back, and got it, and dragged it around with me. The second I left the till, the person behind me took it and said to the saleswoman, "how much for the whole bolt?"

So anyway, my good luck to you. If you would like this bag, leave a comment below. It comes with a delightful ceramic floral broach (Red cross op shop) as shown. The inner is made of upholstery fabric from my scrap stash. The inner pocket is decorated with tatted doily. The outer is pure wool coat fabric, and is pleated along the front.

It's been handmade with exhausted lurve.

Giveaway closes Friday 13, just to show it can be lucky for some. Family and friends eligible to enter.

Post editing note:

I updated the photo with one which shows how the pleats work more clearly.