Quite some time ago, Lisa from Paprika Patterns asked me to be a pattern ambassador for the Presidio purse ahead of the launch in May. This involved getting the pattern for free in exchange for sharing pictures of my finished make on social media. But, I always wanted to write a little blog post about my experience making up this pattern, I just did not get around it until now.

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For my first make, I chose to make view B as I did not want to add any more hardware than I needed to and wanted to only use fabrics and supplies I already had in my stash. For the main panels of the outer bag I used the Hollywood golden age stars canvas cotton* I purchased from Minerva.  Also, this meant that the best colour match was an open-ended zipper, not a closed-ended one. For the rest of the outer bag, I picked a plain red cotton twill*. Neither of the fabrics was that heavy so, to beef them up on the main body of the bag I used fusible fleece* and to strengthen the straps on them I used Decovil light*. For the lining, I just went to the suggested quilt cotton, which I got from my local Abakhan store ages ago.

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I found the instructions that come with the pattern quite detailed and easy to follow. They also include links to tutorials or more in-depth explanations about the best fabrics to pick or how to decide on what is the best interfacing to use if using fabrics that need some extra structure or detailed how-to techniques used in the construction of the back with plenty of pictures.

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The outer all in one strap was a tricky thing to handle as the fabric was fraying a little too much. However, the double-sided tape came in handy and with a little patience, I managed to set them in.

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I feel that that fusible fleece was not enough for the bottom of the bag. Next time I make this back I’ll use for the panels in the middle of the back Decovil light* instead of the fleece and possibly add some bag feet.

I’m pretty happy with my bag, but a little too big. I’m saving it as a beach bag. I love that one can use the main panels to showcase a cool fabric pattern or use it to colour block the bag.

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