I’ve had a lot of distractions lately, hence not keeping up with my on-line journal, so I thought a rainy Sunday is a good time to do a bit of catching up.

One of my recent projects has been this hip bag.  Has any other bag got so many different names?  According to Wikipedia, and depending on where you are from, you might know it as a fanny pack, belt pack, belly bag, buffalo pouch, hip sack, phanny pack, waist bag, waistpack, butt pack (US), waist wallet (Canada), hip pack (UK), belt bag (Philippines), bum bag (UK, Ireland, South America, Australia, New Zealand) or moon bag (South Africa).

  
After a bit of research I got the impression that these are an item you either love or hate!  Personally I have always been a fan of them as they are the most practical way of carrying my phone, keys, purse, etc when riding my motorbike, pushbike or walking the dog.  I’ve got several leather “bought” bags but having seen some patterned fabric bags on Pinterest I decided to have a go at making one myself.

  
I began by cutting three basic shapes, one for a large pocket, one for a small pocket and a piece for the centre back.  I just loved this striped Japanese tsumugi cotton fabric that I found at a show earlier this year.  It’s quite light weight so I lined it with a heavy weight cotton curtain fabric to give the pockets strength.

 Once these pieces were made up they were all together joined using two short strips of green floral fabric. I considered making eyelets and using a buckle but in the end decided that “D” rings would be quicker, easier and just as efficient for fastening.  

    As I am always putting things down and loosing sight of them my next hip bag might be more of a utility belt with pockets for scissors, tape measure, cottons, etc to keep everything accessible while I’m crafting.