We are celebrating fall with the most classic of back-to-school accessories: a convertible bag! We have been itching to do a bag pattern for YEARS and we thought Crew was the perfect place to showcase one of our most versatile designs yet! The Butterscotch Bag is an infinitely customizable travel bag that converts easily from a cross-body messenger-style bag to a backpack with the rearranging of clever hardware. Loaded with pockets for water bottles, pens, phones, notebooks, kittens, and secrets, it’s a great stash buster and a wonderful opportunity to play with colour, texture, and print. 

The Design

Butterscotch can be made in two sizes and can be customized to use whatever hardware you have available. All views feature a flap with closure, side pockets, drawstring closure, a fully lined interior with pockets, and an optional zipper compartment.

• View A is a small backpack that converts into a midsize tote. 
• View B is a large “school” sized backpack that converts into a large tote.

This bag can also be made as a non-converting crossbody bag or backpack, an open-topped tote and so much more. We have a blog post showing all the ways you can make it and options without hardware if that's tricky to source where you are. Essentially this is an everything-in-one bag you can customize infinite ways to make all the bags of your dreams!

Butterscotch Design Story

Still have questions? Learn more about the design of the Butterscotch Bag as I walk you through all the design features in the video below.

Suggested Fabrics

We recommend mid to heavyweight bottom-weight fabrics for the body of this bag like denim, twill, and canvas. For the lining, choose stable wovens like quilting cotton, cotton broadcloth, chambray, shirting, and poplin.

Like always, we've created exclusive kits at Core Fabrics that include absolutely everything you need to make your own bag! This time around we made hardware-only kits that include all the hardware you need in one place, from strap webbing to pretty swivel hooks and D rings in antique brass. You can then build your dream bag using your choice of bottom-weight fabric. At Core Fabrics, they suggest the organic cotton canvas, mid-heavy weight denim, and for a water-resistant bag, their new line of waxed canvas. For our samples, we used the canvas in Caramel and the Navy Waxed Canvas.

How to Get Butterscotch

Like all Crew patterns, Butterscotch is only available when you sign up for Crew! Subscribe at the monthly level with Essential or Plus to get it (you can cancel at any time), or sign up for our annual Unlimited plan and get Butterscotch along with the other eight Crew patterns we've released this year so far, plus 11 more months of patterns!

(Please note that if you are signing up after September 2023, you'll only be able to access Butterscotch at the Unlimited level).

This Month in Crew

With a Crew membership, you get access to so much more than just a pattern. Each month, we curate a theme page with an inspiration board and curated resources to help you assemble your pattern. You also get access to our private forum, whether you're looking for fitting or sewing help, or just want to chat about sewing with like-minded folks.

For our Plus and Unlimited tier, we have a block printing workshop on how to easily customize fabric with any design you want! Core Fabric's artsy employee Blare is teaching Cassie how to make fabric for her very own custom Butterscotch backpack. Our live event this month, also for those tiers, will be a tea party with Heather and Amy where we are spilling the tea on the last three Crew patterns of the year! We can't wait to get started planning our fall wardrobes and we thought you might too!

We're so excited to see what you do with #ClosetCoreButterscotch! Join today to get sewing!