I bought the pattern for Amy Butler’s Weekender bag ages ago and then realized we would have to take out a 2nd mortgage on the house to pay for the materials to make it. Heavyweight home decor fabric is NOT cheap, and this pattern also uses tons of interfacing and heavyweight stabilizer (pretty inexpensive, but 5 yds of that stuff adds up fast). I saw really gorgeous fabrics that I loved, but they were anywhere from $15-$19/yd. Since the bag says it requires nearly 5 yds. of fabric (not including all the other materials), this was just not worth it. I could buy a bag for less, and for me that takes the fun out of making something.

But then I hit up IKEA this week because I decided wanted to make the bag in time for my spa weekend getaway with Laura Ann (which I am leaving for…as soon as I finish this post). I found home dec fabrics on sale for $2.99/yd! There were 4 fabrics to pick from, I grabbed 3 yards of them all. Finally, my chance to make this bag on a budget. And I did…in one day. I am now completely delirious, I made tons of mistakes that only I will probably ever notice, my studio looks like a tornado stopped by, and I’ve learned that I positively suck at putting in liners the Amy Butler way. But it’s done. And I’m kind of in love with it, despite everything else.

So here’s the final tally on the cost: $44.59, including all the interfacing, Peltex, zipper, cording, and heavyweight plastic. That’s freaking awesome, since I trolled the internet and found that the cheapest other version of this bag I could find came in at around $75.

I’ll post more on this bag when I get back, but I will say that I actually only needed about 3 yds. of fabric total, and mine weren’t 54″ wide like the pattern calls for. More like 42″ wide.