Mother's Day Buttercup Bag Remix

This week I've been messing around with the Buttercup Bag pattern for Mother's Day presents. As many others have mentioned, I feel the original version is a bit on the small side (while I think it's nice that it works from a fat quarter and is fab if you usually carry a small purse, it's a wee bit small when your normal purse contents include a cloth diaper, a sippy cup, and a change of 2T clothing). So I tried out a couple different enlargements for Mom H (above) and Mom O (below) for Mother's Day...I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

: : I like the shape here; I might try this again with a longer strap worn by the waist : :

Both were made with Amy Butler fabrics on both outside and inside and interfaced completely with flannel (I use a flannel sheet that accidentally got bleached in one corner and is no longer usable). I also interfaced the top parts of both purses with heavy-weight fusible interfacing.

: : Is there more belly here or more bag? : :

: : Hey check out that spring top! : :

I decided to try covered buttons for Mom H's version (above); I love how they turned out all professional-like, and of course they match (finding two large buttons in my button box that match is rare and cause for celebration). I used some of the aqua dotted material left over from the Mendocino top I made last week. Covered button kits are sold for a couple bucks at my local chain fabric store and require no special tools, by the way (huge plus there).

For Mom O's version I tried a recessed zipper. I found a tutorial Craftster where someone had made an enlarged Buttercup Bag with a recessed zipper, but it was so complicated I just gave up trying to understand the instructions and just winged it.So some of you are wondering, "How big are they, Rae?" Well I will tell you: I enlarged the pattern by 129% for both versions (I had read a few places that people had tried a 30% increase and it worked out well. In fact, I noticed in the Featured Creativity Sew, Mama, Sew had up yesterday that one the projects was Kate's Buttercup Bag which she had enlarged by 130). Additionally, on the longer version I added 2 inches of length (plus an extra 1/2" on the lining for the zipper), and hacked off a little more than 1/2" from each side of the top piece, so the pleats were also a bit bigger.Here's a few comparison pictures (the yellow version above is the original pattern) so you can see the size difference. I know it's hard on the bottom two, but look at my hands for scale.And below you can really see the size difference between Mom O's bag and the original pattern piece, although you can see that it wasn't that much wider after I trimmed the top pieces, but definitely a lot longer:So I'd say that's a win for Mother's Day prezzies this year. Yay! If you're still scrambling for a present idea there's still time to make one before Sunday!