Earlier this year I made myself a Weekender Bag (and it was such a pain I swore I’d never make another one, but my sister just saw a photo of this and wants one for Christmas!).



I used this fabric because I had a ton of it as a result of a small blunder in measuring/cutting for a duvet cover I was making, the result of which was the purchase of about $50 more fabric and lots of 18-20 inch by 3 yard long pieces of this lovely gray on gray abstract floral. But I digress.

I took this bag on an overnight trip to San Francisco in May. I thought it would be perfect for the one-hour train ride up the peninsula; when I fly I like wheels or a backpack. But I soon discovered that I had not used sturdy enough fabric for the handles. They were really crunching up and biting into my hands, making this very hard to carry when it’s heavy.

Enter the matching handle grip.



I finally sat down last week and fixed up a handle grip for this baby! So far this seems like it’s going to be much better, though the true test will be using it sometime when the bag is loaded full. The handle grip is basically just an oval shape that folds around and is secured by a magnetic snap, so I can take it off or put it on whenever I want.


I’m considering putting together a tutorial on how to make this but we’ll see if I can find the time. I’m telling you, work is a real impediment to doing anything fun these days!

As a bonus, I discovered last Tuesday that this handle grip will also fit the handle of my sewing machine, which, incidentally, is the least ergonomically-friendly handle of anything I have ever seen. It has been truly painful schlepping that thing to sewing class in the past, but was greatly improved this week by the use of this handle grip!