D.I.Y Baguette
Nothing screams early 2000s fashion, in my eyes, more than the Fendi Baguette. Vogue once described the Baguette as “That totemic accessory that announced you were the owner of all that was desirable in the world”. The ‘It’ bag has now become a must-have with the fashion crowd. The official definition of the ‘IT’ bag is a high-priced designer handbag that is a popular best-seller for a few seasons. Some bags go beyond this and become cult-like gods in the fashion world…………. like the Fendi Baguette. Created by Silvia Venturini Fendi in 1997, for the self-named Italian fashion house that was best known for its fur and leather goods. The baguette is thin, compact, and designed to sit comfortably under the arm, apparently the same way the French carry bread and this is where the bag got its name, the Baguette. Fendi really did get the Baguette bag trend BANG ON using exotic skins, brightly coloured sequins, feathers, beads, and bold colours and prints and they were hugely helped by them having been styled by the legendary Patricia Field on the HBO series Sex and the City. The era of the Baguette, to me, was the golden age of fashion, the BIGGEST names in the industry were creative directors at the BIG fashion houses: John Galliano at Dior, Tom Ford at Gucci and YSL, Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton and people actually longed for Vivienne Westwood, oooooh how times have changed haha. From the iconic memorable collections being sent down the runway to the creation of iconic accessories for the house, Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton being the most memorable. There was an overall sense of glamour in fashion back then and the prices were definately not as steep as they seem today.
I decided since I cannot afford a new era Baguette, I would make myself one. I was inspired by the bold purple coloured sequinned Fendi. Instead of going for sequins, I went for a turquoise vegan vinyl going for the same vibe with a bright impactful colour. I found this on eBay for £11.99 a metre and it came in 34 different colours. I was instantly drawn to the turquoise vinyl but before I made the jump I searched for matching coloured piping. When I found out that turquoise was a pretty easy colour to get pretty much everything in I went and bought it. I stumbled on this incredible mirrored leatherette A4 sheet for £3.99 and I knew I had to have it for the Baguette.
What I used to create this Baguette;
half a meter of vegan vinyl
half a meter duck canvas
4 meters of piping
A4 sheets of mirrored leatherette
matching polyester tread
17cm zip
4x golden D-rings
2x lobster claw clasps
side-release buckle
Sew-in foam stabilizer
The first thing I did was get an idea of the size I wanted the bag to be. I did some research on designer websites such as Fendi and Gucci and looked at pictures of the bags against the model. I found this the best way to gauge the size before you go ahead and cut the pattern pieces and being disappointed with the size once the bag is finished. If you look at the item description on the website they usually tell you the dimensions so then you can go ahead and run up the pattern using them. The sizes I went for were 37cm long, 22cm high and 7cm deep.
The best way to run up the pattern pieces, I found, was to draw a rectangle 37cm by 22cm. Once you have this shape you can start to design the shape of the bag adding curved corners etc, to create the front and the back panels. When I was happy with the front panel I got a tape measure and measured the length of the outer seam line. I then divided this measurement by 2 and then drew up a rectangle the length of this measurement by 7cm, this would be the side panel when stitched together. Don’t forget to add your seam allowance, I used 1cm.
I decided I wanted a pocket on the back and also one on the inside……… I don’t think this adds much to the overall design they were just what I like to see in a bag. For the front flap piece that comes over from the back, I made the sides 1cm narrower on each side, just to accommodate the handle and strap attachment. For the length of this flap, I added 7cm (the width of the bag) and added 2cm just for the fold-over. I then added length to this piece, stopping with enough room to fit the buckle and the fabric that will hold the buckle in place.
I decided that I wanted to frame each seam with turquoise piping. I did this because I thought that it would make the look a LITTLE more professional and hide a number of mistakes haha. I used just short of 4 metres with the dimensions I used for this bag. To sew the piping to the vinyl and canvas I used a zipper foot so I was able to stitch closer to the bulky piping cord.
I was very fussy with the kind of buckle I wanted. I did a LOOOOAD of searching on Amazon and eBay for a large gold metal buckle. I found many of them but most were located in China and would have taken over a month to arrive, I don’t have the patience to wait that long sadly haha. I finally found these side-release golden buckles on Amazon, they were from the States but arrived in under a week. This was the last piece I was waiting to arrive but I couldn’t have done any more with the bag until they had, which was pretty frustrating.
For the handle, I measured a rectangle the length of the A4 sheet and marked the width 8cm notching every 2cm by drawing a line from one end to the other. I did most of the handle in the mirrored leatherette but as it was a little shorter than I wanted I added a section of the turquoise vinyl to each end. I was glad I did this because the mirrored leatherette was much thicker than the vinyl and sewing through 8 layers to attach the lobster claws would have been IMPOSSIBLE! I added 2 small rivets just behind the lobster claw to add some strength to the handle.
For the panel that holds the D-rings, I cut out two rectangles 4cm wide by 10cm long. I marked the centre point, then 1cm on each side and this was the fold line to hide the raw edges. Once I had stitched the raw edges back I then folded the piece length ways in half and trapped the D-ring in by stitching alongside it. I then added the other D-ring below it and secured it in place by stitching alongside it. To attach them to the sides of the back I stitched down the same lines where I stitched the raw edges of the panel, to avoid having too many holes in the fabric. To secure these in place I then added two larger rivets for strength and to get some more gold on the bag haha.
Once the bag was constructed I decided to add some foam stabilizer to the back, front, flap, and side panels. This really helped to give the back some structure while it is being used. I just cut the pieces out (minus the 1cm seam allowance then slid it into where it belonged. I then added some topstitching around all of the seams. This helped keep the stabilizer in place. It also helped where the seams were reeeeeally bulky due to the many layers of vinyl, canvas, and piping. I did this incredibly slowly making sure to avoid mistakes. If you stitch the vinyl and then unpick it, it leaves a hole in the material, so carefully does it with the topstitching!
Useful tips
A few good tips to remember about working with vinyl is that it is best to use a long stitch length, the short stitch length could split the material, almost as if it has been perforated.
Using a Teflon machine foot is a PREEEETTY useful tip too. The metal versions stick to the vinyl but the Teflon almost slides across the vinyl a dream.
Avoid using pins in the vinyl, if you can. Once a hole has been put in the fabric there is no getting rid of it. I used some clips I found on eBay called ‘Wonder clips for quilting fabric craft knitting sewing crochet’ a mouth full, huh? Haha.
Stitching the outer pieces together and lining pieces together separately, and then once they are both finished joining them is the easiest way to stitch together the bag.
Blazer - Collusion, ASOS
Earrings - ASOS
Necklace - eBay
T-shirt - House of Holland
Bracelet - eBay
Watch - G-Shock
Belt - Moschino
Jeans - ASOS
Boots - ASOS