I Made A 90's Style Baguette Bag From Scratch

Lately, I have been making things beyond my usual 50's and 60's vintage style. With a bleak prospect of a "normal" life (island vacations, weekend brunches, and basically any large events), I find no gaps in my wardrobe and am left with little desire to create anything specific to the mid-century style. Something in my brain clicked one day while I was checking out my fabric stash with the possibility of making something for the #SewYour90s challenge at the back of my head. When I saw the remnant piece of pink faux snake skin from my previous refashion projects from many moons ago, I decided I would take part in the prompt and I made a 90's style baguette bag from scratch!

Kind of a 90's gal

Being a late 80's baby, I'm kind of a 90's gal. But also, since I was a teen in the 2000s, many of my fashion ventures occurred in late 90's and early 00's. The 90's / Y2K baguette bag is always close to my heart. I only ever owned 1 of such bag in my teens. It was an itty bitty baguette bag in a fine rainbow stripe print (covered in clear PVC) with a thin pink strap. I wish I had some photos to show you but I don't have many existing photos from those years.

My other faux snake skin sewing projects

The original thrifted faux snake skin skirt

However, I do have photos of my previous makes using this faux snake skin PVC fabric! The PVC I used for making my 90's style baguette bag is actually from a skirt that I thrifted when I was living and studying in Sydney.

My first sewing project with the thrifted faux snake skin skirt - an envelope clutch

In the months after procuring the pink faux snake skin skirt, I made an envelope clutch and a Jimmy Choo inspired coffee cup sleeve. I was a true novice sewist during those years but they were very good years because I had ZERO boundaries when it came to deciding what to make.

My second sewing project using the faux snake skin material - a coffee cup holder

After sewing the clutch and the coffee cup sleeve, I still had a little bit of the faux snake skin left. I didn't decide on making anything else out of it but I decided to save the remnant pieces for a future project. Who knew it would take almost 8 years for me to decide on the next project?

Making the 90's style baguette bag

I decided on making a 90's baguette bag using this remnant faux snake skin fabric as soon I saw it while going through my fabric stash at my parents' a few weeks ago. The timing was perfect because I had been ruminating about the #SewYour90s challenge organised by @SewYourChallenge, and I also recently disassembled a crumbling secondhand bag and saved all the hardware. I didn't have to buy anything new for this project at all!

Materials

Here's the materials I used for making my 90's style baguette bag

• Faux snake skin PVC (just about a fat quarter worth of yardage from the thrifted skirt)
• Polyester lining fabric (also from the same thrifted skirt)
• Zipper
• Gold-tone D-rings
• Polyester sewing thread in coordinating colour
• Heavyweight, woven sew-in interfacing

Pattern

I drafted my own pattern for this 90's style baguette bag. Before drafting the pattern, I took some time to consider the steps involved in sewing the baguette bag from scratch. I don't know about how other pattern makers think, but with a 3D construction like a bag, I find myself having to think about the steps to sewing before drafting the pattern. It's kind of like having a mental draft of the pattern in the head but having to plan it out to confirm it. Does this make sense?

When drafting the pattern, I worked around the constraints of the limited yardage and also tried to ensure that my wallet would fit in the bag. I also designed the ring attachments and strap width specifically to fit the D-rings I have from disassembling the secondhand RTW bag. With that, I was able to make the 90's style baguette bag in the exact size that I want despite having such limited material available!

Sewing

The planning and the drafting were the easy parts. Sewing layers of PVC + lining + heavyweight interfacing was the most challenging aspect of this project. I have had experience sewing a bag before with my polka dot Raspberry Rucksack that was made with laminated cotton outer layer + polycotton lining + heavyweight interfacing. But geez, this is a slightly more complicated pattern than the rucksack.

I used a sharp Jeans sewing needle and had to go really slow for certain parts of the sewing process with my Husqvarna E20. The faux snake skin PVC material is really kind of "sticky" and there is a lot of pull under the sewing foot of the machine

I experimented with using different sewing foot - namely plastic foot and roller foot - but none of these worked very well. I know a Teflon foot and a walking foot might have helped, but I don't own any and don't intend to buy them just for a single project.

There were many parts where hand cranking the sewing machine really helped. At the end of the day, I won the arm wrestling contest with my machine and the only casualty was a single sewing needle.

My 90's Style Baguette Bag

I am really happy with how this 90's style baguette bag turned out. It's been 9 years since I first made the envelope clutch in 2011 and this 90's style baguette bag which I made from scratch using a self-drafted pattern is a testament of how much my skills has progressed. Seriously, I almost cried when this was done!

Let me know what you think about my 90's style baguette bag in the comments below! x

Check out all my other refashioned projects here!