Erin Erickson of Dog Under My Desk's pattern is extremely well-written with tons and tons of nice clear photos for visual makers like me. I followed her instructions exactly as written with the exception of using three different fabrics for the bag's exterior.
The cars and bikes are Echino, and the viewmasters are an older Melody Miller design for Kokka. All of the exterior fabrics are heavier cotton-linen blends and were marvelous to work with. The interior is Alexander Henry's Heath in a nice muted grey:
It's very cute and a really nice size that's perfect for a wallet, phone, keys and maybe a notebook.
New techniques I learned: using slider hardware to make an adustable strap and inserting a recessed zipper.
Things I'll do differently next time I make this pattern: reverse the placement of the strap so that the slider lands on my back and not my front when it's slung on my right hip; use the same fabric for the front and back or at least choose ones that don't contrast so much; install an interior zip pocket.
Overall, though, I'm really happy I made this bag, and I feel like I built some skills doing it. I also tested the limits of my sewing machine: top-stitching through multiple layers of bag fabric, plus interfacing, plus many layers of strap was slightly too much for ol' Jojo. But only slightly. All I had to do was go back to a single straight stitch from the triple stitch I'd been using and it was smooth sailing.
