Burdastyle Charlie Bag in vintage barkcloth

I support Burdastyle. What a cool concept: open-source sewing. And what a great pattern, this Charlie grocery bag! I inherited a vintage barkcloth remnant that I was crazy about -- the weight of the fabric, the colors, the print, the texture -- what's not to love? This remnant was still in my stash because of the odd dimensions: about 9.5 feet long and about 11 inches wide (did I mention this is a remnant that used to be drapes?). I thought about making some cute baby clothes for the current baby boom among friends, but it just didn't seem an obvious match so the remnant stayed in the stash. Until I decided to make the Burdastyle Charlie bag.

The bag pattern piece is meant to be cut on the fold, but my remnant was so narrow I had to make a "center seam". No big deal. The other big challenge was the state of the fabric along the existing seams: in several places, holes had worn in the fabric. After unpicking the seams to take advantage of every quarter-inch I could salvage, and after creative placement of the pattern piece along the remnant, I still had two holes I couldn't get around -- so I patched them up, one with a teardrop-shaped applique patch of the same barkcloth.

Anyway, this was a nice, simple sew that resulted in a roomy, stylish bag. It's even big enough to carry my flute and piccolo and music and all the kitchen sink stuff that flutists tend to carry! Love love!