Diy. 90 minute reversible walk-around-town summer bag

I’m not much of a seamstress, but this project shown to me by my sister is really easy to do. It took us only 90 minutes, and that included the preparation time and the inevitable girl talk - you know how sisters are. :)

You’ll need:

• Fabric:  100% cotton, thick, two sided, preferably with coastal patterns - it is a summer bag after all ;) ; you'll need 4 pieces of 30x30 cm, but you can make it bigger or smaller if you wish
• All purpose thread to match your fabric
• See-through ruler
• Scissors or rotary cutter and a mat

Step 1: choose your fabric - that's easy, right?

Step 2 (and 3): cut the fabric into four 30 centimetres squares, but make sure you are happy how the pattern looks on the squares; you wouldn't want an unfinished or unrecognisable pattern. For instance, we made sure there's at least one whole fish on each piece. As you can see we now have two white and two blue squares. First we'll put the two blue pieces together pattern on pattern, which means that the blue should be on the inside now, facing each other. 

Step 4: sew up 3 borders, making sure the pattern is not turned upside down. If I did that with my pattern, the fish would look dead, lying in it's back. It is also really important to have the right color thread so that it will blend in with both sides of the bag. 

Step 5: lay the bottom of the sewn up pieces flat, like in the picture and mark a line across approximately 3 or 4 centimetres in.

Step 6: sew up over the drawn line. And then repeat step 5 and 6 on the other side of the bottom line. This will make the bag a bit wider and better looking.

Step 7: Cut off that extra fabric.

Step 8: repeat steps 2 through 7 with the white pieces of fabric. When turning them pattern on pattern you now have the white on the inside, and you'll sew on the blue side. But be careful! While doing step 4, you should leave the middle of the bottom open, which means you will sew up both sides, while the bottom will only be sewn two third, leaving the middle third (approximatelly 10 centimetres) open! We'll need that hole for later.

Step 9: At this point we'll make the strap. From what is left over from the original fabric, cut a piece 8 cm wide and 100 cm long. Depending on what color you want your strap, do the following.. 

Step 10: Fold in 1 cm on each side, as shown. You might want to iron it, so it will hold in place. 

Step 11: Fold in half and iron

Step 12: Sew up the entire length of the strap

Step 13: We will now assemble the bag. Put the first bag into the second. The first one (blue) should be turned the right side, while the second one (white) should be turned inside out. 

Step 14: Put the strap between the two layers on the side of the bag and hold it in place with a needle

Step 15: sew up the strap

Step 16: Now push the blue bag (the one that's inside) through the hole you left before. See.. told you it will come in handy ;)

Step 17: This is how it's supposed to look now

Step 18: assemble the bag, so it is already the shape you want it.
Step 19: We will now sew the hole at the bottom of the bag. 

Step 20: There's just one more thing left to do. Sew up the entire top part of the bag and that concludes our project.

I hope you enjoyed making it, as much as I love wearing it :)

Also a BIIIIG thanks to my sister for showing me this!

Love you sis!