Buttercup bag

A couple of my friends got married last weekend. I bought a really nice maxi dress that I fell in love with (I was not supposed to be dress shopping.....) but didn't have a matching bag and didn't really want to spend even more money. But I did have some matching fabric so I thought why not? I can make a bag, right?

After scouring the internet for easy-enough-for-beginner-sewers patterns I came across the Butter Bag by Made by Rae. The examples on Flickr looked great. I spent ages doing some extra research on making bags as I've never tried it before and then I cut into the material.... And the result:

The instructions were fairly easy to follow, although I did use a video tutorial I found - Couturier Mommy - and a step-by-step diagram one - Pigs in Pajamas - which were both very useful to a novice like me. I decided to use interfusing for the outer part of the bag, the flowery strip at the top and the strap to give it more structure (there were lots of debates about this online). And I was really surprised at how easy the magnetic clasp was to put in - although not very impressed at the price at my local chain craft shop...

I managed to put in the pocket on the inside:

And I also sewed another "Tybalt" label in - again very clumsily!

Oh how I wish I had a zig zag stitch!!

The pleats were easy to do and look very effective:

I even managed to topstitch the edges to make it look neater and nicer!

The only thing I wish I'd done differently is prewash the fabric. It's already creased and no amount of ironing is solving the problem.

But guess what the most annoying thing is? I didn't even get one photo of me with my lovely dress and matching bag at the wedding!!