It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Right

For weeks I have been wanting to make the 'For Pleats Sake' bag from u-handbag.  It's totally yum, and uses some very posh leather handles.  I have not seen the handles that Lisa stocks in her shop anywhere else, but I like to make the most of overseas shipping, so I figured I would wait until I needed a few things and get it all at once.  Yeah, totally forgot to order the handles.  I dug through my stash and found a few things that would work well together.  So here we are:

I know the fabric is from Kona, but I don't know what it is specifically. It was left on my doorstep.  No, really--my mother's friend leaves me fabric every now and then on her way to work.  Wonderful way to start the day.

Some lovely pleats for your viewing pleasure.

 The inside is a fabric called 'Tea Stain' that I found at Joann's.  I originally wrote Satan instead of Stain...I find this inexplicable, yet amusing.

 The handles are faux leather that I also bought at Joann's a loooong time ago.

I have a confession to make.  I remade the bag you see above.  And I took the official finished product to work today to show off and promptly sold it (woohoo!), so I don't have pictures of the proper version, but you get the idea from above.  Why the remake?  Well, some of us may have thought that there is only one way to make a pleat and they were in fact experts at that method.  So when something seemed off because they weren't doing it properly, they may have just kept going instead of looking at the stinkin' pattern pictures.  The real version is narrower at the top and has a much nicer shape.  However, I learned a few things to do differently and it worked out really well for the final version.  I am going to make one of these for myself this weekend, so I can show you what it's supposed to look like and the modifications I made. 

Disregarding my initial goof, this was a really simple pattern; I was able to make it in one night.  The only part that gave me any lip was the v-shape on the side.  I think that's just a matter of practice makes perfect.  Third time should be a charm...I feel like I say that a lot.