Cooper Bag is Finished!

Cooper Bag Version 3, The Satchel

The Cooper Bag is finished!! I should have finished the bag last night. It's just that when I went into my sewing room, which also happens to be the room where our TV is, the whole family was piled together on the sofa watching an episode of Season 1 of Grimm. So it was only natural to jump on the sofa with them and spend the next hour with my eyes covered while "watching" one of the freakiest prime time shows I have ever seen. Confession: I am a scaredy cat so I spend most of my family Grimm watching time with my eyes shut. But I digress.

As of last night all that was left of the Cooper Bag was the flap and lining. That went together pretty quick this morning. There are a few variations from the pattern such as these pockets on both sides of the lining. The lining is nylon ripstop. Very slippery but sewed up easily with lots of pins. I especially liked the directions for sewing up the pockets. Simple.

Lining. Pockets on both sides. Next time I would probably put in a zippered pocket.

Another variation was this contrast band at the top edge. The bag looked good with out it as well. Another option I just thought of is a biased tape finished edge. Might try that next time.

Love the front pockets!

Here is the back of the bag. Another easy variation that could be added is one long continuous strap that actually goes under the bag bottom. The pattern called for the accent fabric as the bottom gusset but I thought that would be too flimsy so I used vinyl and added bag feet. This greatly added to the stability of the bag.

The bag finishes very generous in size!

Overall this is a good beginners project except I would not recommend a beginner try the bag with leather or vinyl. I never could get a good press on the vinyl seams which I had to work around when sewing on the bottom vinyl gusset. Other than that and with the help of the Cooper Companion Book anyone should be able to complete the bag.