I was asked, initially, by a friend to 'customise' her shopping trolley so that alcohol could be 'smuggled' into a venue. The trolley was brought to me to look at and measure up and for a whole two weeks, I tripped over it, looked at it and mainly shook my head as I couldn't think how I could 'sew' something appropriate. I eventually came up with a cardboard box, which could be placed in the bottom of the trolley and a lid made out of black material to hide the bottles in the bottom.
Looking at it, I felt disappointed that that was the only thing I could come up with and that the trolley would be really conspicuous! I got my thinking head on and worked out that I could maybe come up with a bag design with a false bottom which could hide a bottle. If each girl had a bag, there was a potential for 5 bottles of booze going into the venue and it wouldn't matter if two or three of them were searched and the booze confiscated as there would still be the remaining bottles for that night. Bags I can do: the false bottom I wasn't sure about and the how to get the bottles in and out surreptitiously was going to be the challenge.
I thought long and hard and began to wonder if I could somehow put a bottle into the bottom of a bag, underneath the lining, so that when the bag was opened, the bottle couldn't be seen. On paper, the design was simple - just make the lining shorter than the body of the bag. I then needed to work out how to get the bottle in and out of the 'space' easily enough so as not to be seen.
I finally came up with a basic tote bag pattern, shorter lining but with a concealed zip in the bottom seam so that the bottle could be put in and taken out easily. Not having done a lot of 'zip work', I checked out my Pinterest boards, found the relevant tutorial and got to work. As this was just a mock up, I picked some fabric I had a lot of and hadn't cost a lot and set to work.
I can virtually make a tote bag in my sleep so the main task wasn't difficult; it was the setting of the zip which was the challenging bit.However this too was a breeze! The tutorial was so easy to follow and everything just fell into place. The bag was made in a few hours and ready to take to bike night for my mate to see.
She loved it!!! So much so that the trolley project was abandoned there and then and an order placed for a bag for each of her mates. Happy day!
After a little more thought, I changed the design of the bag slightly. It would mean more work for me but I felt that this second design was more fun.
I found some vintage looking material for the bags - each one was to be different as I do not make the same bag twice - and some felt for the recipients' initials which were to be added to the bag. The theme of the weekend was 'old biddies' and each person had their own old lady costume. I made sure that the material was of a relevant 'type' and set to work.
The zip opening had to be measured exactly along the seam: too low and the bottleneck would pull on the zip; too high and the alcohol wouldn't pour easily into the glass. The measurements for the bags were the same so the cutting was relatively easily (if not tedious!) and I ensured that the initials were placed sufficiently into the body of the bag so as not to end up in the seams.
What a lot of fun I had making the bags! I put some cardboard in the base to which I added some bubble wrap just as a little added protection for the bottles. Each bag has internal pockets and a contrasting lining and can be used on a 'normal' shopping day if required.
The finished bags were a huge hit and the girls had a great time - no one suspected and all booze was consumed.
It had been awhile since I had done any sewing and it felt as if I had my mo-jo back.
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