A little backpack

It's been a rough few months hasn't it? I can't complain, I still have my job, my family and friends are all well, Australia locked down early and the dreaded virus never ran wild here. Restrictions have eased here but I'm still working from my tiny home.

I couldn't sew for the first five weeks of lockdown. It's normally my happy place, my distraction and I'm pretty good at forcing myself to sit down and sew, even if I'm not feeling it, knowing that I will feel better afterwards. But I was too jittery to concentrate and preferred to spend my afterwork time either enjoying the late sunshine on my bike or crocheting in front of the TV. I would go into the sewing room, pat a few things in the stash, but couldn't bring myself to cut anything out.

But a few weeks ago I went out for breakfast on a sunny Saturday morning (a friend ordered takeaway to her place and gatherings of 10 people at houses are now allowed) and it really cheered me up. I got the desire to sew again, but to do something different, something a bit easier and that didn't require any fitting.

Enter the hilariously inappropriately named Body Bag, a pattern I bought on a whim in Tokyo's Nippori Fabric town last year. I think it was at the shop with the brown awning. I don't think it was more than about ¥500 and at the time I half-doubted I would ever get around to make it up.

It turned out to be the perfect pandemic project and has actually been a pretty handy little bag since I made it up. I spent a happy afternoon collecting the findings for it, fairly easily as it turned out. The fabric is some upholstery fabric from Spotlight and the lining some cotton gingham in the stash.

Despite having an English name, the whole pattern is in Japanese, which I don't speak. But although not perfect, google translate was pretty good and the diagrams are excellent. Unlike other bag patterns I've bought, this has actual pattern pieces with the seam allowances clearly marked. I found this so much better than the previous bag patterns I've used that turn out to be just a written list of rectangle dimensions, and saved me a lot of time.

This bag came together easily and with a great finish. The lining is just the same as the exterior pieces, and hand-stitched in at the zip, a very neat and easy finish. I added an interior zipped pocket as I have dreams of one day going overseas again, and wanted a spot for my passport. The front pocket is perfect for a phone and the ubiquitous hand santizer.

The body bag name, I'm guess, is because the bag only has one strap and is intented to be worn with the strap across the body, although I've mostly been shortening the strap and wearing it over one shoulder instead.

Most happily of all, my sewing group managed to get back together again last weekend, when they lifted the limit on community centres to 20 people. It was a novelty at first, but aren't we all sick and tired of zoom by now? It was a little different — tables further apart, stricter cleaning and handwashing rules, we had to keep wipes by the iron and our long suffering leader had to complete hygiene training before the meeting but it was glorious to be back together again. Two people tried on my bag and asked to borrow the pattern, and I got a lead on a free cardigan pattern, happy days.