It was old and forgotten - now it's "Vintage"

The holidays are over. Back to work today for me.
These were quite busy holidays and though we did do a lot of small trips and outings, I did manage to squeeze in a bit of sewing and crafting in there.
I finished two "ufo's" - one is the crochet drink bottle holder from a previous post.
The other is this bag.

This is from a 1981 magazine pattern and is made in a canvas fabric and is lined in the same canvas.
I'd cut it out years and years ago to take to uni (where did those years go?).
I'm going to count it towards the 2010 Challenge as my lined piece for April.

It's even got a modern addition of a phone pocket.

The front of the bag has these fabulous, deep, zippered pockets. The main reason this has been a ufo for so many years is that the instructions for putting the front pockets together had me completely stumped. Back then, I knew nothing about constructing anything other than a Simplicity or McCalls dress pattern. I had a 'eureka' moment at the start of the holidays, when I pulled out the bag from the bottom of the 'don't look in here too often' basket - suddenly it all made sense. And the bonus is that the May challenge is 'enclosed zip' - do these count as 'enclosed'???


Heres what I learned from this month's challenge:

• When the instructions say "leave opening in base for turning" you should really leave an opening in the base for turning.

• When attaching handles to the front of your bag, don't sew them to the back of your bag

• If you buy fabric then, it is vintage now!(I like this lesson best of all).

• A ufo can always be finished - you just have to resist all those who say "you will never finish that, why don't you just throw it out?".

Here's the happy recipient with her 'vintage' bag.

Thanks for taking a peek over the fence...