Bernie Belt Bag Cross Body Sewing Hack

Hey! Welcome back to the Friday blog, in this post we are turning the Bernie Belt Bag into a cross body bag with just a few easy steps! The pattern modifications are really easy, and you can whip this together in an afternoon.

What you need:

- Outer fabric, something with structure works best like a cotton canvas, or medium weight fabric.

- Lining fabric, something a bit lighter in weight. Use up scrap fabrics in your stash, things like cotton lawn, viscose, rayon, etc, are all great choices.

- X2 D rings: In the Bernie Bag pattern you also need 2, but these will be used differently in this make.

- Strap/belt adjustment buckle (slide buckle) (most D ring/bag hardware packs come with this).

- Button or snap fastenings.

Pattern amendments:

The amends to the pattern pieces are really easy. To achieve the larger size bag the width of the pattern pieces aren't altered, only the length of Piece F, and Pocket piece G is lengthened. Add 4.5 inches to both pieces, for piece F, this is just half it's current size - and for piece G this is to make sure the pocket sits in the same place it needs to from the original design.

The bag strap is made using the same belt pattern, I doubled it and then added another few inches, and that seemed to be long enough for me but of course check the length and make sure it's long/short enough for you.

Piece I (for the belt loops) are simply cut in half, so sew up 1 as per the instructions, do a few back stitches in the middle when sewing, and then cut that in half to create the strap loops.

Sewing:

- Step 1: as you can see the belt loops have been halved, and they're attached in the same way as the original instructions, but before you stitch them in back to the outer back bag piece, loop on your D rings as shown, then clip in place, and stitch, securing the D rings onto the loops. 

- Follow the rest of the instructions for the belt bag as usual, including the larger pocket, it goes on in the same way. 

When sewing the zipper, be careful to make sure the D rings on the back piece are tucked out of the way, so they don't get caught under the needle/sewing foot.

Once the lining is in, it's time to move onto the strap! 

I cut the strap about 1 3rd in, and looped the strap around the D ring, and stitched it down. It needs to be looped to the wrong side, so you don't see the fold when you're wearing it.

Then take the Small part of the strap and fold/loop it around the centre piece of the sliding buckle (as shown above). Hold it out of the way and stitch the strap fold down.

The other side of the belt is attached the the other D ring in the same way (as shown above) and stitched in place. Finish the end of the strap by tucking the raw edge in and top stitch. Then loop it through the sliding buckle.