I recently bought several a lot of Mav Pack panels from Glitterbug Fairy. I felt like this was a great way to eliminate a lot of material waste, grab some fun designs, and potentially make a few gifts for family and friends. (For those who are looking for the pattern, you can buy it here).

Since each design comes with 2 panels, I decided to split them up to make 2 bags instead of 1 (they are designed so you can use the panel for both the front and the back). This requires a bit of planning and some additional vinyls, but well worth the time.

First, I made these adorable little summer VW vans. For this version, I pretty much followed the pattern “as is”, but I eliminated the zippered pocket and wound up binding the back of the bag (instead of turning) because the vinyl got pretty thick. My only complaint with this bag is that the zipper doesn’t show the top curve well – it really needed to be clipped, but I was afraid clipping the zipper would make it fray and eventually lose the zipper integrity.

For my next attempt (Dolly), I decided that I would take a slightly different approach in hopes to keep the Mav’s shape better. This time around, I modified the zipper so that it’s centered (instead of being sewn down directly to the front) and bound both the front and the back. I was MUCH happier with the results and am pleased to say that my bag binding is definitely improving.

My favorite part about these bags are the fun\kitschy details. I stumbled across this flag zipper tape and paired it up with a rainbow star pull and I just love the end results. I plan on wearing this one for 4th festivities and sending one home with Taylor when she visits too!