Simplicity 2396 Review

I have made at least 10 purses, most of them with the same pattern. I was getting tired of that pattern & looking for something with a quicker assembly. I had been wanting to buy this pattern for the last few months, but the $15.95 price tag for the pattern kept me at bay. Finally Hobby Lobby had Simplicity patterns for $1 each, so I bought just a few..

The pattern that I used. You can buy this pattern at Jo Ann Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, & many other places.  This week I made the style of purse pictured in the bottom right:

Here is my finished product! I'm trying to pick more basic colors for myself these days:

 Here is the inside of the bag. Its hard to tell, but the inside of the bag is dark black with gold on it. It looks very nice in my opinion. I know that i am breaking the keep the inside of your bag a light color, but oh well.  I also added a magnetic snap to the inside pocket (this was not included in the pattern) because I like to have my pockets closed off a bit so that things do not fall out easily.

How my bag looks when almost full:

Here is how I feel about the pattern:

Likes: Overall, its a great pattern. There aren't many pattern pieces needed to cut out for this bag. The less the pattern pieces that you have to cut out, means less fabric to cut out, and less to sew together. I was looking for a purse pattern that made me feel like I wasn't walking around with a purse that screamed "I'm homemade" which is how I feel at some of my purse attempts for myself in the past. I like the shape. The proportions on the bag are great. Sometimes I have to adjust the straps on a bag because I don't think that they are made long enough, but this one was great--no adjustment needed.

I have to hit on it again, I love how quickly I was able to sew the bag. Normally patterns suggest that you sew your straps & then pull them inside out, that takes forever. This bag simply had you fold them in a few times & sew. No reversal needed.

Keep in mind this bag is on the medium size. You could figure that out by looking at the measurements on the back, but I think often people are fulled by the picture on the front & they figure that the bag will be bigger. I normally carry large bags, but I wanted to make a medium bag because I am trying to get used to carrying less personal items around with me. Once I have my baby in November, I very well may not be carrying a purse at all on a regular basis and just throwing some of my items in a diaper bag. That is why I want to start figuring out now what I really need to carry with me.

The instructions called for an interlining, which I have not done before. I ended up using a thick stiff white bed sheet as my interlining material. It gave the bag just the right amount of stiffness and I am very happy with the result.

Dislikes: Not too many. The everyday price is pretty steep, but so are most patterns these days. I think that this pattern makes certain assumptions that you know exactly what to do with no instruction. For example, it will tell you to baste something (which is temporarily sewing something), actually it mentioned basting A LOT, then it never tells you when to remove the basting. Not to mention, with how many times the instructions said to baste material together, it seemed like the bag hardly required any permanent stitching. I ending up ignoring the "baste" instructions for the most part & went ahead and just sewing the material together. Other than that, I loved the pattern & I plan to make a dark denim version of this purse as well as a few out of the random material that I already own...in the near future!