Anthro-Inspired Bag: Ile Saint-Louis Bag

I saw tutorials for a knock-off of this bag from Anthropologie floating around some link parties last week:

Anthropologie - Knotted Tag-along Tote, $498 (Renamed by Anthro as the Ile Saint-Louis Bag with the reduced price of $288 ;)

The Little Appleseed posted a tutorial and a pattern at Someday Crafts! I checked it out and it looks easy enough to follow (except for the bias tape part... I have never tried using one before) so I decided that this will be my first attempt at making a bag.

After spending all my free time over the weekend...

... Mommy-and-daughter matching bags! After looking at the photos this morning, I only noticed that the folds along the sides are not as noticeable in the bags I made. I only made a couple of folds on each side and they were completely covered by the bow, but trust me... they're there! Also I couldn't find checked fabric in the fabric store at the mall so I had to use one with small beige stripes.

I mentioned that this is my first time to use bias tape...

Yes!!! I did it!!!

I didn't have time to make my own, though I saw a tutorial by Dana over at Made on how to go about making them. Maybe next time. The tutorial she posted on how to sew bias helped a lot though! And I did it the proper way, not the cheating way!!

I used soft cotton material for the bow so it was flopping around a little. I stabilize it, I sewed along the sides of the center:

I think the bag could use a zipper... but that's another thing I have never tried before. I think I will though, because I really want to have a zipped opening for this bag. But for now... my first attempt at making a bag and my first time to use bias tape! I think I learned a lot last weekend :)

Before I end this post, you gals might be wondering what my 1-year-old toddler needs a bag for. Well, every girl needs a place to put her 'essentials':

...you know, phone, keys and 'lipstick'.

I wasn't able to take pictures of us using these yet because I only finished last night (Sunday night my time). I meant it when I said this project took 'all my free time last weekend'. Andrea had no idea what it was when I first handed it to her... but when she saw I was carrying one just like it, her face lit up. She loves rummaging through my bag and I think she will love having one for her own to rummage through.

I hope you all had a productive weekend like I did. (In spite of the very sad news about Japan. Let's all keep praying for them).

Updated 3/17/2011:
We took Andrea to the doctor for a check up this morning and we used our bags!

Updated 04/04/2011:
I was browsing the Anthropologie site and I noticed that this bag is available again... but they are now calling it a different name: Ile Saint-Louis Bag. And they reduced the price, they are now selling it for $288. They have another bag they are now calling the Knotted Tag-along Tote.

I linked up this project to the following link parties:

Sundae Scoop at I heart Naptime | Free for All at Young and Crafty | Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff | Craft Couture Monday at Craft Couture | Made by You Monday at Skip to my Lou | Sew Cute Tuesday at Creative Itch | Take a Look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts |  Show Me What Ya Got at Not JUST A Housewife | Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings | Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog | Made with Love Monday at Sew Chatty  | Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design | We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado | Sugar & Spice at Seven Thirty Three | Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple | Crazy Cute at Between You and Me | Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes |  Weekend Wrap-up Party at Tatertots and Jello |  Keep It Simple Sunday at The Tattered Tag | Strut Your Stuff at Saturday Mornings | Sew Crafty Saturdays at Wildflowers and Whimsy | CraftOManiac Monday at CraftOManiac | Making Monday Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T. |  Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple | Craftastic Monday at Sew Can Do |

Please take a few minutes off crafting...

... and pray for Japan.

If you are currently tuned in to the news, you would have learned that they were hit by a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami a few hours ago. I couldn't believe the footage I saw on CNN:

Click image to view the video on CNN.

Our company has an office in Japan and some of my officemates here were in a meeting with some of our officemates in Japan when the quake hit. They said they can hear equipment shaking in the background as our Japanese officemates told them they were being evacuated.

This was followed by a news broadcast identifying other countries on tsunami alert, including the Philippines.

What's New? and a Featured Blog!

I finally learned how to make a button for my blog!

Check it out on my right panel. It's not yet perfect I know, but it's a good first try (and I only had around 10 minutes of Photoshop time available yesterday). I'll work on it more when I find the time.

Another not-so-new thing... this has been on my blog for 2 weeks already... I added new pages: About Me, Contact, and a Features page.

And a few days ago, I got my first email on the email address I provided on my Contact page! The email was from Karen of I ♥ Crafts - Manila... she's from Manila! I've been checking out craft blogs for a while now and so far, I haven't seen a 'craft' blog yet that's not about digital art based in the Philippines. Karen can totally relate to my angst about not having too many sources for craft supplies here.

From our email exchange, I learned that Karen teaches arts and crafts to kids here in Manila and she posts pictures of their projects on her blog. My favorite is this project about Egyptian pillows. Can you believe 10-year-olds made that? So go check out her blog for great project ideas for kids!

Click image to visit I ♥ Crafts