Brainstorming: Handbags

I really need to make a new handbag. I haven't made one since my Chicago trip last September. It's been far too long.

Sure, a lot of grand ideas have popped in my head since then. None of them really stuck with me. I have plenty of fabric in my stash but I never felt inspired by them. Most of them are floral prints. Perhaps subconsciously I'm sick of floral prints. I need to branch out.

My inspiration this week for handbags is this cute tote from Anthropologie:

Painted Cycles Tote

Looks fairly simple to construct, doesn't it? I know where to buy leather handles (finally). I just can't decide on fabric. At first, I wanted to avoid novelty fabrics (read: bicycles and the like) for fear of being too twee. But the more I look at this bag, the more I like it, especially the bicycles. So, this is the direction I will go.

In keeping with the bicycle theme, I'm perusing the novelty fabric section of Hawthorne Threads.This fabric by Michael Miller just might work:

Bicycles in gray

Still not sure that I'd like to carry around a bag with bicycles on it. If I wanted to go in another direction, I do have some Joel Dewberry fabric in my stash.

Modern Meadow: Herringbone in Timber

It really is beautiful in person, but kind of boring and brown. I need to get away from brown, just like floral prints. I have too much brown already.

Hmm. Decisions, decisions. I may ponder this for a while longer. I need to get back to my muslin for Vogue 8784, which is slowly becoming the wrap dress of my dreams.

More on that later...