Handmade Couture: Make this look - A Crossbody Saddle Bag

Are you or someone you love a designer handbag enthusiast? Do you sometimes find yourself staring at bags you see in magazines, or even on someone's shoulder in the grocery store wondering how to recreate that bag? Then the Handmade Couture series is for you. We pick a designer bag and tell you how to recreate it using available sewing patterns, materials and hardware.  You can have the same look, but make it totally "you" and for a fraction of the cost. When you sew your own bag you know exactly what is going into the bag and can add or modify features to suit your preferences. Today, we are going to show you how to recreate this CHLOÉ Marcie Medium Crossbody Bag:

The Marcie is a great everyday bag with a luxe look. With an adjustable strap and gorgeous feature embroidery on the flap it's the perfect bag for any modern bag lover. 

Marcie measures 11" W x 10" H x 5" D and is crafted with supple grained leather and accented with gorgeous gold hardware. You can own this lovely in your choice of 8 colors for 1490 USD.

Like the look of the CHLOÉ ?  Lets be our own brand.

Pattern + Hardware + Fabric= Handmade Couture

Pattern:

The Saddlebag pattern by Mrs. H is a great match to our inspiration bag. 

It boasts the same shape, and as you can see by the versions stitched up by rjafmakes above, you can easily add a contrast piece onto the flap to mimic the look of the Marcie. Additionally, The Saddlebag has more features written into the pattern that you may choose to either use or omit to your tastes. Add the back slip pocket, the lining pockets, or leave them out to more closely resemble the Marcie. 

The Saddlebag measures: 14"W x 8.5" H x 7" D, so similarly sized to our inspiration bag as well. 

Hardware: 

To recreate the leather ties on the bag, you can attach a small d ring to the edge of your flap. Like these Emmaline 1/2" D-rings in gold:

Once you have attached a D-ring to your flap, you can tie on a small piece of the leather and then add the Emmaline gold zipper ends to the ends of your leather to recreate the look of our inspiration bag:

To make your adjustable strap, you'll need a 1" Slider and rectangle rings in the 1" size:

Fabric:

If you wanted to recreate our inspiration bag, you can find a similar leather like this Ultramarine color cowskin from The Tannery NYC 

If leather isn't something that you aren't comfortable using, you can find a faux leather that would work well for the same look of our inspiration bag, like this faux leather available here.

Another great option is natural cork fabric, which is available from MM Cork Supply in Canada or from Sew Sweetness in the US.  You can get cork in a various colors and finishes, like this denim blue:

You can choose to do this in whatever fabric you are comfortable working with! A fun cotton print, canvas or even denim!  That's the benefit of creating your own, it's what YOU want it to be. Handmade can be couture too!

----------- 

Photos and content provided and written for Emmaline Bags by Cyndi Farfsing, from The Nosy Pepper. Cyndi's blog is chock is full of more bag photos and make making tips. Check out her bag series "It's in the Bag! Better Bag Making Series," to learn a ton of new bag making skills.

Share your projects made from Emmaline patterns and/or with Emmaline hardware in our facebook group Emmaline Sewing Patterns Group, or on instagram with the hashtags #emmalinehardware, #emmalinepatterns, #emmalinebags, or tag us @emmalinebags.