High school me (and really any time in the last 20 years me) is reeling that I would dare make and style a fanny pack on the blog today, but here we are! After moving to Boulder, Kyle and I spend so much time hiking, biking, and walking everywhere, and sometimes you just need to have your hands free. I have some crossbody bags, but most of them are really small and had very long straps, and are quite honestly way too fancy to be hiking and biking around with. I went in search of a bag pattern and found the Nicola Pouch.

I had never made a bag before, so I wanted to use a pattern to get an idea of the construction required. As it turns out, it’s not that hard! The most difficult things about the bag were navigating the faux leather material and getting the zipper in cleanly. Mostly due to the faux leather… I had problems trying to sew through the material when the leather side was face up, so it did rip a little of the coating off. I also found that if you made any mistakes, there was no seam ripping the faux leather because it left holes in it. That being said, I’m pretty pleased with the result!

This pattern is from Liberty Crossroads in collaboration with someone I follow on Instagram — also having a hilariously similar name to mine — @sewbakemake! Although I was very happy to have the pattern, I must admit I broke almost all of the rules. Here is what it calls for versus what I actually did:

• A very small amount of exterior fabric – I used scraps of faux leather/vinyl from Fabric Wholesale Direct which I already had!
• Interfacing to stiffen it – I used this, but it probably wasn’t really necessary with a faux leather.
• A 10″ metal zipper – I used 9″ since I couldn’t find anything 10″ and shortened the zipper opening by 1″.
• 1.5″ wide belting, with D-hooks and belt loops to match – I used 1″ because I couldn’t find hardware at 1.5″ that I liked. If I would have waited I could have ordered some on Amazon.
• There was a pattern piece for fusing which I mistook for a lining…. Again, this wasn’t needed for my faux leather. Instead, I used the main front and back pattern pieces and cut out a lining from more excess fabric I had, and then I followed the tutorial on Sew, Bake, Make’s Instagram saved stories. It was incredibly helpful!

I love how it turned out, and I could probably make these incredibly quickly if I chose a canvas material and chose to not line it, but the lining is such a nice touch that I don’t think I would like it as well without it. What do you think?