A Bag for the Big Book

Here is a special bag I made within the last month. I apologize for the bad pictures, I'm not sure why I didn't use the flash, or take this out in the sun. I'll have to re-shoot it when it comes back around to me.

I recently was given the task of sewing a bag to house a very special book. It is a specially hand-made journal for recording the thoughts of all the women who become priestesses in our organization, Sisterhood of the Silver Branch. It is a remarkable book just to hold, very substantial, not to heavy, quite long and surprisingly skinny. As it journeys from one hand to the next, we thought it best to have some kind of protective bag. So I came up with this!

Lunaea found the beautiful fabric (Hoffman "Silent Inspirations" by McKenna Ryan) and she also bought a special vintage button on ebay.

This is closer in color to what the fabric actually looks like, it is the "ice" colorway of a similar print, "pine needle panels".

It was pretty easy to put the bag together, and I just kind of winged it making an oversized rectangle for the bag, layering the fabric over batting, quilting it with metallic decorative thread, then adding the lining and flap closure.

Here is the flap closure on which I did some decorative embroidery and a whirlpoolish swirly design. I used rayon and also metallic threads. The button was really perfect, it is a silver almost pewter with swirling leaves.
This shows the lining which was a silky, shiny polyester charmeuse weight fabric that I had leftover from a cape for one of the many Halloween costumes that I've made over the years. It was very ravelly and slippery to sew. I hope that it is strong enough to hold up to some use.