Gold Bag

Instantly loved this bronzey-gold calfskin leather and thought it would be great to use for a Louis Vuitton Sofia Coppola slash Givenchy Lucrezia sort of bag.

Making the tophandles

The completed handles with hardware

Attaching the handles to the bag body

The main bag body

Reinforcements for the handles

Attaching the side panels (hello again my binder clip friends and mini C-clamps)

Side panels sewn on

Attaching the zipper (binder clips = awesome)

Bag feet (weird orange light reflection from my lamp)

The finished bag

I left the inside unlined because I really liked the suede-like texture on the reverse side of my calf leather. It also made me extremely careful about keeping my stitches clean.

I had initially intended to add corner panels like Givenchy’s Lucrezia bag, but realized that our machines in school couldn’t reach it. When I tried sewing the panels by hand, I didn’t really like this leather for it and thought I’d need a stiffer, more rigid leather to get the right shape (mental note for a future project).

Oversized zipper pullers

I made the shoulder straps attach to the top handle instead of the sides because it deformed the shape of the bag and the machine couldn’t reach it anyhow.

 I also followed the Lucrezia in extending the zipper down the side panels (unlike the simpler zipper like in a Louis Vuitton Speedy bag), which was extra challenging pulling through the machine. Note the wobbly stitches :((

 I think I need an arm-less, table-less, robot machine or something for this. Or something with lazers. Yes, definitely lazers. #futuresewing