One of the latest offerings from Fibremood (Magazine 24) is the Giti, a very cute cross body phone bag. I didn’t want to make any summer clothes, but felt that I could readily use one of these when I have no pockets to put my phone in.

The bag has a little credit card slot and the whole thing is designed to be made from a non-fraying fabric.

I made the first one from some leather that I harvested from a sofa being thrown out down the street from us. I marbled the leather with my friend Claire, from @InkPaperPrint and, although it’s not the best, I do love it. I used a shoelace for the handle for the leather one and some leather thonging for the felt one.

As soon as I had made the leather one I thought I’d try and convert the credit card slot into a little zipped purse. I used a scrap of felted wool that I had previously naturally dyed. I cut the slot a little bit bigger and attached it to the bag with a zip. It worked really well and holds some coins and notes very well.

I was about to make one from some black canvas, thinking I’d need to add seam allowances when my eyes lit upon scraps of pink blanket left over from my zero waste jacket. I decided to make this one completely by hand, using blanket stitch to join the edges. I also added some embroidery to the purse part as I was practicing some stitches, and was also attending a Flower Power event. I really need to lift my embroidery game!

The pattern suggests joining the ends of the bag handle with a bead and I did do that for the leather one, but wasn’t very pleased with the finish. I finished up cutting each handle to length, stitching the ends together and then sliding a heat shrink sleeve over the join. The sleeve has glue inside which attaches to the material as the sleeve shrinks over it with the heat.

I began my shrinking adventure with a regular lighter but then spotted a gas burner cooking thingy (technical term) in the kitchen and it worked so much better.

I moved the joins inside the sleeve on each bag so it’s completely undetectable.

I have used them all and they work so well. It’s hard to show them with the phone in them as I need the phone to take the photos!

I probably only need one, but feel as though I will use each of these for different purposes. I’ve decorated the felted one with a couple of flower power buttons for the Flower Power theme at Fibres West. I’m sure I’ll add more!

This is such a rewarding pattern. If you keep it simple it takes less than an hour to make and it’s surprising how useful it is. I have a few things with no pockets, for example when I wear a jumper and leggings, and this gives me the ability to carry my phone about with me. I do find the ones with the zipped pocket more useful than the credit card sleeve, but I suspect this is a personal preference.