Sweet Confections

If there’s another thing apart from bags that can make girls swoon and sigh collectively and perhaps squeal in delight, it’s cupcakes. They’re one of those things that we absolutely adore! So when Mei of Boutique Cupcakes approached The Bag Bar to design the fabric equivalent of their sweet confections as their outlet opening’s gift bags, we found it hard to resist, just like their cupcakes :)

Looking through their gallery of the adorable treats for inspiration for the bags, it’s hard not to be hit with a Kawaii moment ( and an instant sugar rush! ), what with the pinks and pastels. We thought pink would be a great theme so we went with that and made it the dominant colour. We also really wanted the bags to remind of Parisian cafes, liquorice and candy bars, so we threw in some black and white stripes too. To top it off, they’re also reversible, showing off more pink awesomeness!

These highly-customised bags complete with logo are to be given to special guests ( lucky people! ) as gift bags during the opening of Boutique Cupcakes’s outlet at Lintas Station, Kota Kinabalu on 10.10.10. We’re told the interior’s going to be decked out in the colour pink too. Do look out for that, it’s gonna be sweet :)

September’s Swatches

Twilight Pond Tealight Paper Damask Ivory Blooms Daylight Pond

Sue gets back home this week from the USA and she’s bringing with her our fabric finds, notions, ribbons, buttons, and what nots! I simply can’t wait! She’s been busy tweeting pictures of her fabric-finding adventure from our Twitter feed so some of you early birds have had a peek into the fabric selections we’re mulling on but here’s a taste of what we will definitely be putting up in the fabric collection soon. These ones have a floral and shabby chic theme and come from the same colourway so they can be mixed together in a multi-fabric bag.

Hello from the Big Apple!

Greetings from The Big Apple!

I had meant to write something before I left KK for New York but was so busy with my ‘other’ job that I didn’t have the time sit down and write.

Anyhow here I am in NY and enjoying every minute of it! This is a work trip but I have also been using the opportunity to source new materials and ideas for the Bag Bar.

Due to our limited time here I was unable to get to the one particular shop I wanted to find, despite miles of walking! A week is really not a long time but, despite the wasted searches, the situation was recovered through some inspired ordering and we are now in possession of some great new fabrics and designs. We just can’t wait to show them to you soon.

My remaining half a day in NY will be spent adding to these ‘finds’ and I am optimistic that we will have some new and exciting materials to whet your appetites.

The search continues tomorrow when I head down to San Francisco, home of the modern day ‘hippy’, and I am really excited by the potential ‘flower power’ designs I may find there. I’ll be tweeting live from San Francisco on our fabric finds so make sure you follow our tweets !

Onwards and forward!

Here’s a moodboard of my time in The Big Apple so far!

Sue

What’s Blooming at The Bag Bar….

My sister recently got engaged while on a romantic trip to San Francisco. She’s coming back home to get married here and has asked me to be the Maid of Honour. This ‘maiden’ is deeply ‘honoured’ to be asked, trust, but apparently as I have since found out, being the Maid of Honour really means wedding organiser as well. With great ‘power’ comes great responsibility you see :)

So Sue and I got to talking about the wedding. Sue used to be an event planner and has many tales of various nuptials she has planned in the past. Some were funny and some were memorable,  but mostly they were all fun with perhaps a little bit of stress thrown in. Coupled with our interest in decor and fabrics, it naturally started us discussing about themes, colours, lighting and textures. It got us so inspired and excited that we started making fabric flowers in rich, silken colours. We made 15 fabric flower fascinators in 1 weekend!

fabric flowers

Now we’ll actually have to make the bags to attach to the flowers. Eek! That’s just us, doing things back to front again :)

My sister has no idea what she got herself into:P

TheBagBar fabric label

YAHOOOOO!

Our custom-made fabric labels finally arrived today! We love our home-made labels with the rustic-look stamped logo but these ones are delicious too. We’re simply loving the chartreuse green background, chartreuse being one of our favourite colours. Can’t wait to start attaching them to our next bags!

The Ikat Bag

Bags made out of the colourful woven tie-dyed thick cotton called the ‘Ikat’ have been all the rage this summer, making it into mainstream fashion for much of the past few months. ‘Ikat’ has many origins and is present in many South-East Asian textile design especially in Indonesia, Cambodia and our very own Malaysian Sarawak. Although all different and varying from country to country in its weave and tie-dye process as well as its colour and design, an Indonesian or Malaysian would be able to tell you that the word ‘ikat’ comes from the meaning ‘to tie or bind’ or ‘knot’.

A while back, L.T has sent us the Halston Heritage canvas bag, which had a bee-ooo-tiful Ikat fabric. We loved the colour and the texture of it! We got excited about doing a bit of tie-dye ourselves but thought it would be great with one of our own Batik-inspired prints as well. We took it one step further by dwelling into the original concept of the word ‘Ikat’ and came up with a bag that retains that shape, but has handles that are ‘tied’ and ‘knotted’ so they slide to give you different lengths. And what’s a TBB bag without reversible sides hey? :) We also made a partially hidden pocket so it wouldn’t dominate the side of the bag that is on show. Two real-wood bangles complete the tribal and ethnic theme, which you could also switch from side to side to create different looks.

ikat-aqua-coffee-bean1

Here’s one that we did for Grace, with the combination of yellow linen and the Red Paisley batik print which she fell in love with.

We also did another one with the Aqua Bean and Coffee Bean batik prints, which is now available in the Online Shop.

Halston Heritage-inspired Slouchy Sling

We don’t usually make bags that are directly inspired by bags from well-known brands but there was something about this Halston Heritage canvas bag ( made popular by Sarah Jessica Parker this summer, no less ) that was sent to us by one of our fans, L.T. It was very structural, which appealed to the architect in me. It looked simple, yet had a wish of complexity to it because the handle was made up of one singular panel. L.T also tasked us with making it a reversible…… It was almost too good to pass up.

Halston Heritage Canvas Bag

So it became our mission. This is how it turned out!

halston inspired4

Picture 1 of 4

Side featuring a storybook of birds

Summer is here..

…. and so are summer’s colours! We just got these fabulous patterns delivered and they’re just gorgeous!??  Very good quality light-weight cottons, should do well in vibrant, simply cut bags or totes.

Unfortunately we can’t offer custom-orders using these patterns as they’ve been dreamed up and cut up for our next collection already. But do keep a look out for our next collection!

Summer Fabric Swatches

PORKET BAG

Sometimes we get the odd requests by friends or by the friend of a friend to make a ‘special’ bag for them.  For instance, this ‘Porket’ bag.  One friend went round to the apartment, saw the ‘piggy’ fabric and begged us to make her a bag using it.

So we decided to design a bag for her from scratch rather than use patterns from bags we had already made.

As I was sketching the pockets for the bag, Phyllis looked up from her sewing machine and said, ‘No pressure dear, but that fabric is the last one in print.’ I think I got a little nervous, so instead of labeling the pocket as a “Pocket”, I wrote PORKET.

After picking ourselves off the floor from laughing so hard, we both realized it was an appropriate name for the bag because of the little piggies dotted around the fabric!

And for that, we present you the ‘PORK’ET bag made especially for Elizabeth from the US.

Porket Bag 01

Front of bag with 2 pockets

Porket 03

Front of the bag

Porket 04

Back of the bag

Porket 05

Interior of the bag

It’s No Plastic Mondays!

Tomorrow, the 7th June, Kota Kinabalu will see another milestone through the ‘No Plastic Bag Mondays’ campaign. To start off the campaign, 23 retail outlets and supermarkets in the city will be participating. The aim of this drive is to reduce the use of plastic bags, so make sure you’ve got your trusty reusable shopping bag or one of our Fabric Fantastic Bag at the ready! Better still, let’s make this an everyday habit shall we? Keep a reusable bag in your car or bag, make sure you use them, and ask your local retail shop to join the campaign too! You can find out more info on the campaign here.

The Fabric Fantastic Bag is eco-friendly, reusable, compact and washable. It has the capacity of a medium-sized plastic bag and even looks like a plastic bag, except maybe funkier! :) It also tucks into itself so you can carry it with you everywhere. Here’s how..

Folding the Fabric Fantastic Bag in 3 Simple Steps video



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