Making of the "Miss Collins" Bag

Dearest reader,

After pondering whether I should create one or two of the bags I designed in my final thesis I arrived to a decision to go for it, and focus on the "Miss Collins" bag. Since I already had most of the needed materials and extra freetime it seemed too good a chance to miss. Therefore, in this post, I will share the process of making "Miss Collins" as well as the final result.

Below you can see a painting of "Miss Collins" which was the starting point of the whole making process.

Paper Prototype and Patterns

The first step of making the bag was to do a paper prototype of the design, so I could see how all the pieces work together. After discovering how the bag worked in 3D form I was able to make patterns for the bag.

Felt Structure and Knit

I started the construction of the actual bag with its wool felt structure and then moved on to the knitted parts. I used 100% wool felt and mohair-silk yarn. Next, I created a pearl strap using plastic (unfortunately) pearls from my old necklace. I was also playing with the idea of sticking white feathers to the knit in order to create more texture but, in the end, I thought it looked better without.

Making of the Handle

The most challenging part the bag was its v-shaped handle, which is why, I made another prototype of it from leather and fabric, and tested its fit over the felt structure. Naturally, I had to make some changes to the pattern but over all it worked surprisingly well. After minor changes, I proceeded to the actual handle for which I used pink leather and real silk. Because I hand sewed the whole handle this phase took quite a lot of time. Moreover, I had to add slim pieces of vegetable dyed leather inside the handle for support as well as sewed on popper buttons which would later attach the handle to its felt body.

Putting All the Pieces Together

Finally, when the handle, felt body and silk linning were done all that was left to do was to put all the pieces together: popper buttons were added to the felt, lining and the knitted parts were sewn onto the felt structure, metal hooks were added for the pearl strap and, lastly, the handle was placed over the bag.

The Finished Bag

I must say that I more pleased with the final result than I thought I would be. This certainly is not a practical bag but, in my opinion, it looks rather interesting and unique. What do you think?