Project Bag Complete!

Whomp, apparently I've been terrible about updating. My project bag is finished...and has been for awhile now, but I put it to immediate use and never photographed it. Oops. And in my sleep deprived state (thank you toddler who can get out of his bed now and 3rd trimester pregnancy sleep!) I can't think forward enough to take a better photo than hanging off the chair in my makeshift studio/playroom!

Is it okay to be in love with a bag? I love this bag. The pattern is the Crafty Traveler from Ellison Lane. More on my cosmic connection to this bag in my last post. A brief run down again: the feather fabric is one I designed on Spoonflower, the vinyl leather handels are leftover from Goose's diaper bag, the orange pearl bracelet and green arrows are from the lovely $2.99/yd fabric store near me and the blue chevrons on the inside are my Spoonflower design as well.

The pattern is great, but I knew I was going to need a little more secure storage. First I added an interior pocket and in front of that pocket a large (full length of the side) slip pocket out of heavy interfacing. This is perfect for me to store small embroidery or felt projects without them getting lost at the bottom of the bag. I probably use this pocket more than anything.

I also added a recessed zipper on top. It's the first time I've tried this so it's not perfect, but I'm happy enough with the results. And it definitely works as this bag gets thrown around!

Lastly I chose to use the same outside fabric all the way around (this pocket with the Urban Threads embroidery pattern (the stitches are a little wonky because of the water solvent transfer paper I used that I won't be using again!):

I was trying to use supplies that I already had in my stash, especially after the cost of the Spoonflower fabrics! Luckily I had the zipper (though I would have preferred an orange one!), the fabrics, Thermolam and the heavy interfacing. I didn't have the Shape Flex. A little research told me that Shape Flex makes quilt weight fabric feel like canvas. You know what else feels like canvas? Canvas. And that I have plenty of so I used my trusty double sided fusible webbing to secure the lining fabric to the canvas to give it some extra heft. Definitely extra steps, but it didn't cost me a penny (I like to think money I previously spent just some how disappears).

Now to stuff my bag more full of projects...

Project Bag

I have a ton of canvas tote/market bags from my old Etsy shop and they are wonderful for most of my storage/toting needs. However, like every other bag I have, they are wide open at the top and stuff falls out like it's on a mission. For the past few months I've been dreaming of a good sized, multi pocketed, zippered bag just for my projects.

My dreams were getting elaborate. Very elaborate. Prohibitively so. I didn't even know how to do half the things I imagined. And I'm not talking "an opportunity to learn new things", I mean it may not have been physically possible.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I have a habit of reading my feedly list in the middle of the night (leftover from when I was up nursing Goose every night). I save posts that I later want to add to Pinterest, but thanks to my half wake/half sleep state I often don't remembered what I save. Imagine my surprise to find that I had saved a post called the Crafty Traveler Bag from Ellison Lane. The sewing gods were smiling down on me.

Of course there are tweaks I'm going to make, but its the perfect jumping off point for this bag.

For more perfection, I had just ordered a yard of the first fabric I had designed. I had been looking for fabric, hoping it would inspire a bag design and hadn't found a thing. Thanks to photoshop and spoonflower, I had ordered my own design and just enough for what I needed!

THEN, I stumbled upon the lovely Urbanthreads and everything seemed to fall into place! I downloaded this pattern ($1!) and set to work the next day. It's going to make the perfect outside pocket.

Here are all the outside fabrics. The linen for the side panels and pockets, the vinyl leather for the handles, the feathers for the base.

And the lining fabrics (I also designed the blue chevrons to coordinate with the feathers). The orange pearl bracelet will be the main lining, the green feathers for the interior pockets and slip pocket and the blue chevrons for this large folder style slip pocket.

I'm super excited to get this made up!

Dopp Bag

I've got my eye on a couple of big bags (a weekender and project bag) but I'm waiting on some special fabric for them. In the meantime I'm knocking off some of the smaller bags on my mental list. Next up was a Toiletry (or Dopp, which just sounds much more fun) bag. Because if I remember anything from my hospital stay when Goose was born it was that my toiletry bag was an embarrassment (please note heavy sarcasm).

I found this fantastic and easy to follow tutorial for a box bag by Truly Myrtle. Though of course I had to make a couple of additions!

First off I used a heavy interfacing, fused to the fabric with double sided webbing, for a more structural design. Next I used some iron-on vinyl I found at Joann's to make the inside waterproof. If I didn't do it, I know there were would bottles of shampoo popping everywhere. Now that I have done it, I'm sure nothing will ever spill.

Lastly, I included two very shallow (2.5" deep) zippered pockets on either side of the interior for jewelry. My original plan was to put them on the outside and then for some reason I brushed that off and went on the inside. Now I'm remembering that the outside plan was so that I could access the jewelry without having to empty the bag. Doh.

 

All in all I love this little bag. It's not all that small either at 12" long by 4" high by 6" wide. I found it a little tough to get all those heavy and stick layers turned right side out at the end and had rip out more of the stitching than was called for, which then had to be resewn by hand and doesn't look as clean as I would like. Next time I think I'll also put a pull tab for the zipper on the other side as well. But the instructions were clear and for my first bag I think it turned out just fine!

 

Can I also say that I ADORE the exterior fabric? Love in a ridiculous way. I nearly couldn't bring myself to cut it... but hopefully I'll see it more frequently this way than sitting in a fabric pile somewhere!

Friday Finish: My Version of the Phoebe Bag

Apparently, most pregnant women "nest" by cleaning and organizing their houses. When I was pregnant with Goose I nested by taking on large home renovation projects: replacing the exterior doors, ripping apart my attic studio and planning a full renovation of our upstairs bathroom. You know, little things.

This time around I seem to be obsessed with bags. Maybe it's because I realize that there is no reason to do a full clean of the house with a 2 year old running amok. Or that organizing everything for the umpteenth time doesn't mean that my house will be less cluttered or that I will remember where I put things. But for some reason, I feel that if I don't make every kind of bag I've ever set my eyes on then I won't be prepared for the little Chipmunk to enter into our lives.

And I have diaper bags (that would make too much sense to make). I'm craving handbags, totes, luggage, toiletry cases, you name it. I'm sewing zippers like a fiend. I'm investing in interfacing and webbing and iron on vinyl (for the toiletry cases of course). I'm pinning bag tutorials like they are going out of style. It's bizarre. I'm loving it, but it's bizarre.

I thought I could manage the bag expense by not buying any new fabric. I'd been eying tons online, but as long as I didn't click the little button I wouldn't have purchased it and therefore would have to make do with what I owned.

Then a friend and I checked out a new-to-us fabric shop a few towns over. I had been lusting after this Botanique Bold Bouquet by Joel Dewberry. Despite Google's numerous attempts to get me to purchase it (seriously, those big brother pop up ads based on my search history are going to be my undoing!), I had resisted. So what's a girl to do when 2 feet into a store finds a whole glorious bolt of it staring back at her? Buy it obviously.

I knew that I wanted to make a bag out of it (see: obsession above) and had saved the Phoebe Bag by Rebeka Lambert, which seemed like a perfect fit. I used it more as a starting point as there were a couple of changes I wanted to make. 

 

First, I wanted a "leather" bottom for extra durability and zippers zippers zippers. Long gone are the days that my handbag sits nicely next to me in the passenger seat in the car. It's more likely to be thrown on the floor as I struggle to get a flailing two year old in the car. Or dragged around the house when said two year old wants to play with anything he shouldn't. So I needed a zipper pockets in the front and inside as well as a zipper on top.

Luckily/unluckily for me, one of my favorite cheap-o Target handbags was on it's very last life with all the linings ripping and zippers coming loose. So I chopped it apart and was able to use (3) zippers, all the fabric for my "leather" bottom and the ring hardware for the strap attachment.

 

I lined the inside with a yellow/citron Pearl Bracelet by Lizzy House. As an aside, I never understood everyone's fascination with this fabric. Especially since it loses so much of it's charm when sliced up for quilts. But I realize now it makes a FANTASTIC lining for bags: it's simple but provides interest and comes in great colors.

A note on the zippers: I tried two tutorials for this. The first was on the outside (note to self: start with a hidden zipper when trying something new!) and I wasn't happy with the results. I think it was some combination of my zipper inexperience and unclear directions. The tutorial I used for the inside pocket by Vanilla Joy was fabulous and I've used it twice since with perfect results. In addition to the zippered pocket I added two slip pockets for extra storage.

The bag is a bit smaller than I expected. Even though I read all the dimensions and instructions I thought for some reason it would hold a lot more. I can fit my large wallet, chapstick, phone, a diaper, and Goose's water bottle in their comfortably but not much else. It may very well be a good thing so that I don't load it up every day with nonsense!

One more look...

I organized a new Pinterest board devoted to bags that I'm considering, as well as tips and tricks.

Pouch

 

One of my 2014 goals is to make a on-the-go project bag for my hand quilting and embroidery. The designs for the bag are still under construction, but I had to jump in and make the little accessory pouch to go with it. My current tote bag has a mess of stuff floating around the bottom, and since the bag has no closure, it's constantly falling out.

I was scrounging through my stash and came across these two fabrics. My first big project after Goose was born was to try my hand at some low-immersion dyeing. I used some muslin I had on hand and blended a couple of tutorials and as such, I was less than pleased with the results and banished these pieces to the bottom of the pile. But with some years between us and a new project, it seemed they would be perfect.

It was such an easy project (or would have been if my focus hadn't been divided between the project and Goose trying to dance on the table), I'm ready to make a dozen more!