Messenger Bag Tutorial

A great bag style for guys, whether it's for work, school or for carrying a laptop around in.

All seam allowances are 3/16", unless noted otherwise.

Materials :

Outside of Bag :

- Two 14" x 16" pieces for main part of the bag
- One 16" x 18" piece for the front flap
- One 16" x 3" contrasting piece for strip across the front flap

Inside of Bag :

- Two 14" x 16" pieces for the inside of the main part of the bag
- One 16" x 16" piece for the inside of the front flap

Pockets :

- One 16" x 6" piece of material

Strap :

- One piece 50" x 6" (I used the same material as the outside of my bag)

Key Ring Loop :

- 2" x 5"

Fusible Fleece :

- Two 14" by 16" pieces
- One 16" x 16" piece for flap
- One 50" x 6" piece for strap

Ribbon :

- 17" length of coordinating ribbon for inside flap of bag

Cut out all your pieces and press so they are free of wrinkles.

Take the front flap piece for the outside of your bag. The 16" part is the length of your bag. You are going to create a space to sew the front contrasting piece. Do this by cutting across 4.5" from the bottom, so you will end with a piece 16" x 4.5".

Take your strip of contrasting fabric and with right sides together, so along the edge. Press open, and sew the strip to the 4.5" piece you just cut off. Press open again.

Once you have all your piece sewn together and pressed, it will look like this.

Now take your pocket piece and finish the edge along one side. Do this by folding over about 3/4", and then turning the very edges under. Straight stitch along this part. This is the top edge.

Turn under the bottom as well, but there is no need to turn under again because you won't see this part.

Take one of the 14" x 16" inner bag pieces and place the pocket across, 5" down from the top, with the finished edge closest to the top. Sew across the bottom of the pocket.

Now, decide how many pockets you would like, and mark along the pocket strip. Sew from the bottom of the pocket straight up to the top of the pocket. This creates some compartments. I left one big enough to fit a water bottle.

To create your key ring strip, just fold in half and press. Then press the two raw edges into the middle and press again. Sew along the open edge.

To apply the fusible fleece, put your iron on high and don't use steam. I like to use the inside section of my bag to apply the fusible fleece, because sometimes it can bubble.

Just line up your pieces (making sure you have the correct "sticky" side of the fleece next to the outside of your material) and press. Do this to both inside bag pieces and your strap.

Pin the two inside pieces, right sides together. Sew along the outside, leaving the top part of the bag open.

Now measure a 2" x 2" square in both bottom corners and cut. This is to create some depth to your bag.

Now you're going to flatten the bottom of the bag, so the seam reaches the side seam and lines up. See how it's creating a nice corner?! Yay! Now pin here and sew across. I usually stitch this 3-4 times to add some strength.

Do this in both corners.

Tada! Yay for easy corners!

Now we're moving on to the outside of the bag. First you want to fold your key ring in half and place the two ends right at the edge of the side of your outside piece. You'll want outside fabric to be right side facing up. You can place the key ring at any height. It will be seen on the outside of your bag. I placed mine 5" down from the top.

Use a basting stitch to stitch it into place. Now put the other outside bag piece on top, so right sides are together. Stitch all the way around, just like you did for the inside pieces of your bag, leaving the top open. Cut a 2" x 2" square in both corners again.

Flip your bag inside out and you will notice the the key ring is on the outside. Woohoo!

Now you're going to fit the outside of the bag into the inside of the bag. Make sure RIGHT SIDES ARE TOGETHER. It will be a bit tricky, but you can do it! Line up the seams on the sides and you are good to go! Pin around the top.

Sew around the top, leaving an opening where you can turn the bag right side out.

Turn it right side out and press the top edge. Top stitch all around the top, closing in the gap you left.

Attach the fusible fleece to the inside of the front flap. Place inside and outside of flap right sides together and pin.

You will notice a 2" difference in the pieces. That's okay. Sew along three sides, leaving the part of differing length open.

Turn right side out and press all sides. Top stitch around the edges of the three finished sides.

Turn up the end of the outside of the flap by about 3/4". Press. This is the part you're going to attach to the outside of the bag.

Measure 2" in from the side seams on outside of bag. Mark.

Attach the flap, making sure it falls between the 2" you marked on the side. You'll want the end you turned up on the flap to lay on top of the outside of the bag. You can go down about 3/4" to an inch. Pin in place and sew across, right along the bottom edge of the flap.

The inside will look like this after you have sewn the flap on. The reason I didn't make the fusible fleece or lining fabric go all the way down too, is because I wanted the flap to be "flappy" and not too stiff where the seam is with the bag.
I trouble shooted here because there was a raw edge where the lining of the flap is still visible. So here's where our next step comes in...

I got some coordinating ribbon and just covered up that raw edge by sewing the ribbon across. I kind of like the look too! Make sure your bobbin thread matches the outside of your bag before you sew the ribbon on :)

Tada! Looks kinda neat, huh? (Okay, an extra step and not completely necessary, but I like it.)

Now, take your strap that has the fusible fleece attached to it and fold in half (wrong sides together) and press. Then fold in the raw edges towards the middle piece and press. Turn in each end and press again. Pin like shown and sew along the open edge.

To finish the strap, I decided to sew a few more straight lines to give it a durable quilted look.

Sew the strap to the outside sides of the bag (making sure to line up the middle of the strap to the seam on the side of the bag) and sew across. I placed mine about 1.5" down from the top and sewed across in three different places to add durability.