My Birdie Sling Factory

My first class at the workroom was Amy Bulter's Birdie Sling.

I was in love. I could spend hours (and did spend hours) picking my fabrics at the store.

I wanted to make more: but why do I need more than one beautiful Birdie Sling? Operation "get my friends to love the bag and ask for one" was in order.

To date, I've completed 8 birdie slings: making slight enhancements as I went along.

In the class, we learned to add a zippered pocket to the inside of the sling (lower right picture with the cupcakes,) I added a cell phone pocket with a contrasting button (upper right picture) and I even tried making one with outdoor fabrics for a water resistant feel (left picture.)

From sewing

I had also gotten a request for a bag that was slightly smaller. Resizing the bag? Couldn't be that hard, right? After what felt like an LSAT exam ("Suzy can't sit with Johnny, but Johnny can only sit next to people shorter than him, and each bus must hold 4 girls and 2 boys...") I decided that the only way to ensure success was to make the strap smaller from the centre (taking from the ends would surely need the band to be resized, and resizing the band means the bag opening will need resizing...) and reducing the depth of the bag and not the width (changing the width would mean needing to adjust the pleat size and proportionally reducing the size of the lining.)

The result? A slightly smaller bag! The stranger on the left is from Amy Butler's website, and I'm on the right carrying the new Birdie Slingette!

From sewing

My friend requested for a "burnt orange" feel. I thought the seahorse fabric in brown (by Heather Ross) would be perfect contrasting fabric; the main fabric I found in the upholstery section at fabric land, and the lining is a cute sunglasses pattern.

From sewing

I figured that I would soon get tired of making Birdie Slings. Perhaps one day, but until then, keep the factory going!