I’ve made quite a few of these bucket-style carpet bags. They are strong and sturdy yet light to carry and are so easy to use. 

I’ve been “roadtesting” the first model of the navy tapestry bag personally since November last year.  It’s been everywhere with me but is showing hardly any signs of wear.
Recently I bought some very nice leather remnants to trim more bags but then this happened…

This was a self taught crash course in sewing leather and there was a lot of swearing involved!  I learnt some useful tips, like stapling pieces of leather together to hold the while sewing (outside the seamline where the marks won’t show); stitching down either side of seams to make the seam allowances lie flat; using a proper leather needle and generally taking things slowly and carefully.

I lined it with lovely blue heavyweight textured velvet furnishing fabric (thankyou again, Hazel!).

So now the navy tapestry bag is in temporary retirement as of course I simply have to roadtest this one!
Some of my carpet bags are currently for sale in my Folksy shop, http://www.folksy.com/shops/rozzynanty.