Following my redesign of the Ashbury handbag a few months ago, I recently had the chance to play about with another of my favourite designs when one special lady asked me to resize the original Shelstone. It’s great when someone asks me to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a while – it gets moved right to the top of my ‘to-do list’.
When I originally designed this handbag I had several sizes in mind; I started with the Shelstone, then enlarged it to make the Shelstone Weekend, then finally I wanted a smaller, more everyday version. The lady for whom I created this already owns the Shelstone, so it was really useful to hear what dimensions ideally suited her for the new size.
Redrawing patterns always takes a fair bit of reworking to ensure the finished design looks and feels right. It isn’t always a case of reducing everything by the same amount, but after a few mock-ups on some old sheets, I got the dimensions and proportions that worked for the style.
I love the fabric she chose; you may have noticed I love blue anyway (!), but the blues with the mint green flashes make this really eye-catching.
