The Colette Cooper Bag!

My Colette Cooper bag.

As soon as I saw the Cotton + Steel Mustang Collection by Melody Miller, I knew that I wanted to make the Colette Cooper bag with the minty-ish cotton canvas arrows. I even ordered the fabric from the US as they didn't have this particular print in at my local fabric shop. 

Minty arrowy goodness.

I REALLY enjoyed making this bag. It was nice to make something where I didn't have to worry about making lots of adjustments to fit me, as well as it being just for me too. When I was buying the PDF of the pattern, I also bought a copy of The Cooper Companion as I knew that it would be helpful, but I am also quite interested in developing my bag making skills. I was definitely right with this one. The guide is so useful, and the photos that take you through every stage of each version of the bag are really informative. The instructions that come with the pattern are great, but I found it much easier to follow the photographs in the companion than the illustrations in the instructions. I think seeing the scale of each part compared to the others is what made the difference. 

I made Version 3 of the bag, the two-handled satchel, as I didn't want loads of straps. However, I don't have a pannier rack on my bike (and don't think I ever will have one really!), so I stitched the back strap onto the main fabric for extra strength.

Colette Cooper back with attached strap.

The only frustrating and long part of making the bag was actually cutting out the fabric. As there are three fabrics (main, contrast and lining), it took quite a while. I used the cotton canvas as the contrast fabric, some C+S cotton supreme in Goldilocks as the main fabric and a purple canvas that I bought from Dressew for the lining, as I wanted to give the bag a bit of thickness. If I was making the bag again, I would use something a lot thicker for the main fabric, or the handles at least, as it does feel a bit flimsy.

Below you can see the purple canvas, the internal pockets, and I added some pictures of the bag in use, in both the internal and external sense. 

Purple canvas lining.

Bag in use (and a sneak peak of my next project - another Colette PDF!).

Posing with my full bag!

I actually finished this bag last week as I had intended to use it on our trip over the long weekend to Calgary, Banff & Lake Louise. But Air Canada now charge for baggage so I used a bigger backpack instead to avoid that charge and pack my winter warmers in. We arrived just in time for a bit of a mega snow storm so saw some very dramatic scenery. It's definitely the coldest I have ever been (-15!) - we never get those kind of lows, or as much snow, in the UK!

The view from the Banff Gondola.

Snow and that.

A snowy and slightly blue Lake Louise.