Lahti Flight Bag

When I posted a photo of Nikki's advance copy of "The Better Bag Maker" on Saturday, I had no idea that soon I would be holding my very own copy:

Nikki sent me it as thanks for testing one of the patterns in the book. I made my test bag last April, and Nikki had spent about a year designing and sewing and writing before the pattern testing phase. Since then there's been editing, and photo shoots, and to-ing and fro-ing about the final format. So the book represents a couple of years of work for Nikki. I hope it does well when it is released next month!

On the "You Sew Girl" blog on Monday Nikki talked about the book and showed pictures of some of the projects. She added the good news that the publisher has given the OK for pattern testers to show what they made. So here's my carry-on luggage!

Each project is named after a world city, and this is the "Lahti Flight Bag". I have to admit I had to look that up; I had never heard of Finland's ninth-largest city. Have you? Maybe someone at the publisher is from there?

I used some African fabric (printed in Zimbabwe) for my version:

Each side of my bag has two external pockets like this. In the book Nikki presents various techniques that you can add to any of the projects. Someone else making this bag might use a different selection of pocket types and placement. Inside I chose to add three open pockets and a zipped one along each side :

If you look closely you can see the openings of the three interior pockets here - look for where the fabric pattern changes below the zip. So all together my bag has 4 external and 8 internal pockets.

The base is reinforced, and has purse feet to stand on:

There is an adjustable shoulder strap as well as the grab handles:

Sorry, that photo is on its side, but it is the end of the bag where the shoulder strap is attached.

I haven't flown anywhere with my bag yet, but it has been to a few workshops and quilt-ins with me already. All those pockets come in very handy when I have lots of bits and pieces to carry.

Finally here's the picture I couldn't show you when I was heading home after "Quilt at the Winter School" last July.