Oslo Craft Bag

I've been working on a lot of secret sewing lately, and I'm so glad that I can finally share one of the projects I worked on a while back. This is the Oslo Craft Bag, written by Sew Sweetness for Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. This bag is not available as a stand alone pattern, so you'll need to grab a copy of issue 34 for the pattern.

Love Patchwork and Quilting is a modern quilting magazine based in the UK that features modern quilt patterns, news, techniques and projects for the modern sewist. Although LPQ is a UK based magazine, you can pick up a copy at JoAnn or select Barnes and Noble stores.

The Oslo Craft Bag is the perfect project to make to store your portable crafts, or to help organize your craft area. With a divided interior, you can store several balls of yarn, your EPP pieces or your current needlework project. This would also make a nice organizer for a nursery (I always seem to have babies on the brain these days), to store diapers, wipes and all the other baby necessities you want within reach. 

The exterior has pockets galore, the front of the bag has three pleated slip pockets they can a hold a lot more than you think. The back has a larger slip pocket that would easily hold your favorite crafting magazine or patterns.Each side has a generously sized pocket, with a snap flap to keep any smaller crafting bits secure.

Foam stabilizer is used to add structure to this bag so it stands up nicely and can handle being toted around with your goodies inside. This wasn't a difficult project, but with the use of the different interfacings and the various pockets it's a bit time intensive. The bag is finished by dropping the lining in and finishing with bias tape, no turning required. 

This bag is a fun way to mix and match fabrics, and has instructions to use vinyl straps and tabs. I made mine with this fun print that the lovely Sara herself sent me, I thought the old fashioned looking notion logos would be perfect for a craft bag. The inside is lined with Art Gallery Elements and I used some scraps for the binding and accents. 

If you have never purchased an issue of  LPQ before, issue 34 would be a great excuse to start your next quilty pleasure! I'd love to hear your favorite sewing or crafting magazine, I've found some of my favorite projects in magazines, so I'm on the lookout for some gems I might be missing out on.