Repeat after me.

“I will never make a yoga bag out of oilcloth.”

Trust me. It’s for your own sanity and the health of your sewing machine.

Having said that, look at how cute this turned out!

My friend, Kellie, and I have joined a yoga class that meets during the work day. Neither of us has ever participated before so everything was new to us! We didn’t want to invest in our own mats until we knew we were going to commit.

Well… we committed, bought our own mats, and now we feel like proper yogis. That is… until we fall down during practice, start giggling uncontrollably, or go on strike during the moves that are waaayyyyy too advanced for our novice status.

I’m sure we’re the instructor’s worst nightmare…

We were due for a sewing date so we decided to make the Nigella Yoga Bag, a free pattern designed by Amy Butler.

We had a lot of fun digging through my fabric stash. I settled on oilcloth for the exterior of my bag, paired with a cherry print cotton for the lining.

Kellie found some a cute decorator-weight fabric and elected to use the same for the inside and out.

We didn’t deviate from the pattern so I won’t provide you with a step-by-step, but I will tell you what I would have done differently.

  1. No oilcloth! The pattern requires you to turn the bag right side out, inside out, and right side out again. In addition, there are steps that require you to sew through several layers of fabric. The oilcloth made these steps much more difficult. The round bottom nearly broke me – but I persevered!
  1. Pocket depth. I’m not sure what you can really put in these pockets. They are too tight for flips-flops and too deep for a cell phone a keys. If I was to make this bag again, I’d build in more give to the pockets and make them shorter.

Otherwise, this is a great bag and simple to construct… And a huge “Thank you!!” to Amy Butler Designs for providing this free pattern.

Now, Kellie and I can focus on becoming the serious yogis that we’re meant to be.

**giggle**

Namaste.