Lazies, I had a great time designing and making the ‘Hippie’ bag for my ‘Bold Bags’ ^[1] book with Leisure Arts.  This fun bag is full of personality and is ripe for your personal expression.  In the book, I constructed the bag with a fabric base, faux leather handles and faux leather material cut into short strips sewn into place to create fringe.  I paired these LakeHouse Dry Goods fabrics with the Elderberry colored faux leather handles from Leisure Arts ^[2].  Click to enlarge the photos below.

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I love how the fringe bounces off of the bag.  The bag was photographed with nothing in it.  Once you load your goodies into the Hippie bag it ‘fills in’ a bit, expanding the bag such that the fringe seems to wrap around the bag a bit more.  Give it a little twirl and the fringe sticks straight out from the bag like a flapper dress of long ago.  The body of the bag is a blank canvas waiting for your love and attention. 

Follow the directions for the design in the ‘Bold Bags’ book and substitute fabric fringe for the faux leather fringe.  Here, I’ve fused two layers of fabric, wrong sides together, with Steam-A-Seam 2 from the Warm Company.  I cut the fused fabric into strips as per the directions for the fringe from the pattern in the book.  Be sure to keep your fabrics on the straight of grain to minimize loose threads at the edges.  This created fringe with a pink side and an orange side.

I alternated the pink/orange side for the first row of fringe.  The remaining four rows of fringe are a little less organized.  As the bag grows wider toward the bottom, more fringe fits on each line.  I loved the fuschia dots on the fringe and they match perfectly with the Elderberry faux leather handles.  I also tried the black and the light purple handles, but Elderberry went really well with the pink dots on the black fabric as well as the fringe.  I used a bright yellow fabric for the lining.

Here are the fabrics used to make this bag:
    1/2 yard of pink dots: #05037 Pink
    1/2 yard of orange dots: #03022 Kumquat
    1/2 yard of black dots: #04027 Black
    1/2 yard of yellow dots: #03035 Banana

You will need all the remaining supplies as listed for the Hippie bag in the ‘Bold Bags’ book from Leisure Arts. http://www.LeisureArts.com ^[5] Bold Bags, item #4153. Suggested retail is $8.95

Click here for a printable version of this information: Hippie Bag Lakehouse information sheet ^[6]

Enjoy!

Joan
Lazy Girl Designs

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