For sometime I’ve been wanting to make a new laptop bag and I saw that Linda from Lányos Handmade has released a pattern for one called Luxe. I immediately bought the pattern as it was just what I’d been looking for, and even better, Linda is someone I have met and had lunch with in her home city of Vancouver Island, and I consider her a friend. The proceeds from the sale of the bag are going to ALS research, which is an added incentive to buy the pattern. I hadn’t realised that 10% of all her pattern sales goes to this very worthy cause.

I found everything I needed in my stash, although I had to use an old ironing board cover as the foam padding. It works surprisingly well.

Of course I took no in progress shots and the ironing board cover photographed above is gently resting in my stash having been cut into!

I chose a fabric called “Autica” cotton canvas, which found its way into my stash via a friend. It’s blue and white stripes and is very striking. I absolutely love this fabric. I guess it will get grubby, but it will be completely washable, which is handy.

There is the opportunity to add a shoulder strap but I decided that I didn’t want one, so, although I found one in my odds and sods drawer, I didn’t use it.

Linda goes to some trouble to discuss size in her instructions and I did intend to cut the bag down, but I had the zip installed before I remembered and I wasn’t going to remove it! Speaking of zips, I found a navy blue one in my stash, but I am a bit miffed that I didn’t dig deeper and find one with a double pull as I keep moving my hands to the middle to open the bag. I suspect I’ll get used to it though.

You can see that the bag is a little big for my laptop, but on the upside I have room for a notepad, which I need when I’m in meetings – I still like to write notes.

I lined the bag with a scrap piece of chambray, and there’s a zipped pocket inside the bag.

My son pointed out that the zip pull would scratch my laptop case, and I decided that he was correct, so I installed a little zip garage. I had to hand stitch it in, retrospectively, and I needed to extend the pull so I could get it out of its garage. This little crocheted chain is a temporary fix.

I can open the bag sufficiently to be able to use my laptop without removing it, which is handy, but I probably won’t do it too often.

And finally I had a burning question: would the bag be lighter than my old, bought, one. I had to weigh them, of course!

As you can see, the size is similar, and my original one has the double zip pull, but my new one is over 100 grams lighter, so I consider that a win.

I had the joy of looking after the grandchildren last week, and Miss E had fun in the swing.

Until she didn’t! She’s actually really tough, she was spitting out mud after a face plant, but she let me clean her up and she was running around laughing in no time.