Lotta Jansdotter Bag

For Xmas last year, my siblings bought me a Lotta Jansdotter bag, in yellow, that I will undoubtedly use to pieces. The thing I love about her bags is that they are so simple, and yet so stylish. Simple enough that I decided to make one for myself when I went to a conference at the beginning of November; the cheery yellow of my actual LJ bag didn't quite scream "business casual," so I poked around online for a while and finally discovered Bird Balance, from the Echino line by Etsuko Furuya. It was perfect--clean design lines, a nice mix of open and patterned spaces, and a large print repeat, so that the bag wouldn't be too "cluttered." I liked it so much that I ended up buying some in the cream, as well as the blue.

The bag was quite easy to make--it is essentially rectangles sewn together. I decided to line mine since I was going to reinforce the bag with interfacing. I didn't think I'd be able to find a complimentary fabric in the same style, so I just went with an orange floral from Moda (the Loft 1800 line). The oranges match almost perfectly (although this is hard to tell from the photos), and the contrast works nicely together. This has turned out to be a great fall bag, with the dark brown, cream, and orange--it was perfect for the conference; sophisticated without being stuffy. Well, I enjoyed it, anyway!

The finished bag.

Detail of the birdie.

Inside of the bag, filled with my stuff. It will hold quite a bit, including a folder, books, etc.