After spending time prepping the pieces for my new bag, I couldn’t let it sit!  Over two days I found the time to put it together and completely love it!

It’s huge – measuring 17″ across the bottom.  My plan with this bag, is to take me through The Sewing Summit weekend, with anything important in it with me!  It is large enough to hold my laptop, more likely I will carry my iPad as it is lighter, any lists, papers whatever I need; I plan to have with me in this bag!  Thankfully there are lots of pockets to keep me organized too!

Both the front and back have the scoop pocket, one with a phone pocket too, and two large zipper pockets inside.  As it is so large, I opted to have both the interior pockets with zippers, so that I could keep some things hidden/safe.

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The Sweet Harmony Handbag & Tote pattern has lots of fabric/interfacing/notions needed.  Makes sense – it’s a big bag, and it can stand up on it’s own!  The pattern pieces were well labeled, and easy to cut out.  Depending on the type of fabric you use, you will need more or less interfacing.  After cutting out the pieces, and adding the interfacings, the bag went together simply!

I label this is an intermediate pattern; in the final stages there’s some tricky curves, and new skills, like piping and possibly zippers, and because the wordings can be a challenge to decipher.  As with any pattern, they encourage you to read through all the directions first, but a lot won’t make sense until you are working through the steps with the pieces in hand.  The diagrams in this pattern were clear and concise, which is a great help too!  When in doubt – talk it out – even if that means talking to yourself!

I loved how the handle is attached, and all the basting made adding the pockets – simple!  Not always the case in bags!  I also love that both the handbag and tote have their own pattern pieces, so if I decide to make the smaller version, I can without compromising the larger pattern pieces.

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In the end I’m super happy with this pattern and my finished bag!  However, I need to put the sewing machine away for a few days, while my kids head back to school, and I get back in the hang of rushing everyone out the door each morning.  Tomorrow is the big day, and my girls are excited for school!  Owen is even excited to have his sisters gone for the day, and me to himself – I’ll let you know if that’s really the case, after a couple weeks!

Happy Sewing ~ Amy