Spring Sling Bag

I have my first finish of the 2026 WIPS-B-GONE challenge! Monday night, I finished my Spring Sling crossbody bag and I love, love, love how it turned out!

I started the bag back in January, after buying the pattern and the hardware from Emmaline Bags during their Black Friday sale last year. The pattern is by Janelle MacKay, of Emmaline Bags, and is really well written, perfect for bag-making novices like me 😊 

I had debated what bag to make for at least a year before choosing the Spring Sling. I made a Necessary Clutch Wallet (NCW) back in 2018 (that pattern is also by Janelle MacKay), and I've been using that as my purse ever since. As you can imagine, it's looking a little worn and tattered now! I don't carry much, so I've always preferred a small purse and when I made the NCW, the phone I had at the time fit in it. When I upgraded my phone a couple years later, though, it was too big. Then I reached the age where I needed reading glasses, and a glasses case definitely couldn't fit in, either. That meant I needed a larger bag this time around. I will confess, even with the finished dimensions of the bag in the description, it's a bit bigger than I was expecting 😆 I am terrible at envisioning how big something will be based on the dimensions! I am really happy with the size, though, so it's all good.

All the fabric came from my stash and all the pieces for the accent panel on the front came from my scrap bins. Without intending to, I used the same mottled black for the exterior of the bag as I did for the NCW. I guess it's a case of 'I like what I like'!

I stalled with making the bag in January when it was time to start installing the hardware and to decide how to quilt the exterior of the bag. When WIPS-B-GONE started, I decided I had put it off long enough and needed to just get it done. The first piece of hardware to install was the turning lock, which I had also done on the NCW, but that was 8 years ago and I remembered nothing about doing it, so that was no help this time around. Just like back then, I found it was easier than I expected. Will I remember that next time I have to install some bit of hardware, I wonder?

A couple of months ago, I decided I'd use the loop-and-flower meander to quilt the bag, but I couldn't decide what colour thread to use. Black, so it blended in and I just got the texture? Teal? Purple? Pink? After spooling out some of each colour, I decided to go with the bright pink (Aurifil 2530) and I'm so glad I did. I love that the quilting is so prominent!

No, it's not perfect, some of those flowers are pretty wonky, to be honest, but that's the way my quilting always is - perfectly imperfect.

Making the zipper pocket was surprisingly easy and it looks so professional! You'd almost think I knew what I was doing, but it was definitely all because the instructions are so well done.

Cutting into the quilted panel at this point to add the rest of the hardware was a little nerve-wracking, but it went okay, with only some minor hiccups. When I was adding the first grommet, where the straps go through, the pattern said to put a little glue in the pieces and my glue came out too fast and I ended up making a mess. Not to mention I put the first one on with the back on the outside of the bag, but thankfully I realized my mistake before fully attaching it. Did I mention the hardware makes me nervous? 😆

Adding the side gusset pieces was a bit of an adventure.

 At this point, there are a lot of layers and the pattern specifies to use a strong needle, so I dug out my pack of denim needles. With that in place, and using my walking foot, my Janome 6700 had no issue with all the layers. The adventure part came in trying to maneuver around the curve at the bottom of the bag. Let's just say the stitching isn't at all straight and it's a very good thing it is hidden inside the binding!

I had planned to use the exterior fabric for the bias binding, too, but didn't have nearly enough. I didn't have any solid black, either, and none of the black prints I have were big enough. Then I noticed a metallic print I've had for years and remembered that it's solid on the back, so I used that with the 'wrong' side out. As a little bonus, there are flecks of silver that show through the binding, though they don't show up in the pictures.

The binding is sewn onto the lining of the bag by machine, then hand stitched to the exterior. I finished that Monday evening, then left the bag standing on the kitchen counter overnight. Yesterday morning I looked at it and thought, "I bet I could fit a book in there." I was right! Will I be in the habit of carrying a hardcover book in my purse? Probably not, but it's nice to know I can if I want to!

Have you read the children's book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? My version is "if a quilter makes a new purse...she's gonna need to make a new wallet, too" 😆 The Necessary Clutch Wallet has card slots built in, so I haven't needed a separate card holder for my cards. The Spring Sling bag doesn't have those, so now I need to make a card holder, but haven't found the right pattern yet. In the meantime, the NCW fits inside the Spring Sling, so I'm still using that. As you can see from this picture with the NCW and my glasses case in the front part of the bag, there's a lot of room in there!

I don't think I'll be a regular bag-maker, but I am thrilled with this one and excited to finally be able to using it 😊