I have previously made the Companion Carpet Bag designed by Mrs H patterns. It has proved a great success and I have received many compliments on the bag. However, the first construction was made using ‘landfill’ fabric, was not ‘absolutely perfect’, made in a light-coloured fabric and is now showing some wear. Currently the Companion Carpet Bag is my favourite and I can see many more being made in the future.

As I now have a stock of 8 inch bag frames, it was time to make another version using brand new fabric purchased from Dunelm Mill.

I actually purchased two lengths of fabric, both of which are destined to become bags.

The fabric chosen for Mark II was the Pale Mustard with an abstract design of leaves. This is still a fairly light-coloured fabric but I think it will coordinate well with my Spring/Summer wardrobe.

I am confident with the construction techniques for the bag so this time I thought it would be a good idea to try out a new handle design.

I have seen several bags with handles that are made using plastic tubing for the ‘inners’. I had about 3 yards of tubing in my stash and having viewed some youtube videos went ahead and made the handles. They are not perfect but I feel that I now have a ‘handle’ (see what I did there?) on how to achieve a good result with this type of construction.

As demonstrated on Sewing Quarter, instead of piping on the outer pocket, I added one-half of some zipper tape. I am especially pleased with this ‘design feature’.

The only other change that I made to the pattern was to stitch a dividing line down the middle of the outer side pocket rather than attach a magnetic snap.

I am delighted with how the bag has turned out and will soon be making version 3 in the Light Coral Pink-coloured fabric.