craftgrrl | Pardon my messy room--i was too busy sewing to clean

I needed a new smaller bag for my summer class, so naturally I had to make one.

This is just a basically a square bottomed bag with a flap, so if you want a tutorial for the bag I would suggest Jordy's over at craftster. I didn't follow it, because I'm a "measure not at all, cut fourteen times" kind of gal, but it might have turned out better if I had. Also I didn't have enough interfacing, so I used plain white muslin--I have a buttload of it, since I bought 10 yards once when it was on sale for $.69/yd.
The flap was really easy to make--it's just a rectangle. I got the snaps at Joann's and just sewed little fabric strips to hold them on. I also added a few little pockets inside, although in my carelessness, I sewed the lining in backwards, so the pockets are in the front, rather than the back where I wanted them to be. The pockets are for my ipod, my phone, chapstick, and there's an extra little pocket for whatever. Making the pockets is also really easy. I simply sewed a strip of fabric, stuck the things that I wanted to go in the pockets underneath, marked where I needed to sew and sewed. I did this before I put the lining in the back so that the stitches wouldn't show through the back (or the front, as it turned out).

I think that the stencil is from the memories at stencil swap. First I marked off a rectangle with masking tape the size of the stencil and painted several layers of white to cover up the red. Then I laid down the stencil and painted on the black. I cheated on the green, though and used a tiny paintbrush--it just seemed easier.

I was a little worried about needing to reinforce the bottom of the bag, so I sacrificed an old bag of mine and tore out the bottom and it was just regular old fun foam in there. So I took it and put it in mine and it works great.
I tried to get a good picture of the strap, but none of them really turned out. i just used strap material from Hancock and a big plastic buckle like the ones they put on backpacks. That way I don't have to do the awkward "pull this bag over my head thing"--the strap unsnaps.