Traveling Bag Tutorial

Traveling Bag Tutorial PDF!

(Not really) funny story: I made this tutorial for my sister to use sometime, oh, two years ago. Partly because she asked and I'm awesome like that; partly because I figured that after she tested it out, I could share the tutorial on the blog. But I guess I forgot to go ahead with that last part. Whoops.



I whipped up the first Traveling Bag before our trip to Portland and Seattle a few years ago. I wanted something basic and tough, small enough to pass as a purse, but big enough to hold maps and a travel book. I think it's perfect for that. It's since been on several trips and conveniently fits all my notes and jotted-down plans (and snacks, because I always take snacks) without looking "touristy." In fact, it is so perfect for me that I use it as my everyday purse as well.



I even made a slightly modified one for my other sister one Christmas.

Anyway, time to finally share it with the rest of you! I've put the whole tutorial together in the pdf linked below, two instruction pages and two illustration pages.

Traveling Bag Tutorial PDF!

I hope you like it! And if there are any issues/questions, please let me know!

Better late than never.

Edible cake isn't the only thing I managed to accomplish over the weekend, in case you were wondering. It was very nearly the only thing, but not quite. I also made up this little pouch for my sister.



See, the intrepid girl reporter needs a handy way to make sure she always has her necessary smallish items (such as extra batteries) on her as she dashes off to the reporter-type places she frequents.

The idea here is that she can clip this little pouch to her ID tag thingy, thereby never forgetting it. And it has handy little pencil-holding loops of twill tape, too! It is in the mail on its way to her now, so we'll see how well it actually functions in a few days.



Also, with this, I used my mock overlock stitch to finish the inside seams, and I like it. I really should use my not-just-plain-straight-stitching stitches more often.

Homemade gifts, part II

For my mom, a little trio.



The pouch is the zipper pouch from Bend-the-Rules Sewing, made slightly larger.

The tissue holder is like the others I've made.

And the envelope is of my own recent invention.

Homemade gifts, part I

Now it is time to drag the Christmas season out for ages while I show-and-tell all the stuff I made as gifts. Up first...

For my sister, a bag (like my traveling bag, but a wee bit smaller) and coordinating tissue/handkerchief holder.





I love making those tissue holders. They are really quick to make, and I can't get enough of that I-just-accomplished-something-in-a-matter-of-minutes feeling.

Traveling bag

Before we left for our trip, I managed to whip up this bag.



I'd been thinking about it for some time. Something worn across the body, not over the shoulder. Something with a wide, comfortable strap. Something big enough to hold all the lists and maps and granola bars I like to have on hand when traveling. Something small enough to read "purse" and not "messenger bag."

So I designed this. I drew myself a little pattern and everything. And it actually worked! I even remembered to make a dedicated pocket for easy phone access! So I'm pretty proud of myself.



The exterior fabric is duck cloth and the lining is quilting cotton. The duck cloth feels really sturdy and gives the bag enough structure that I didn't have to use any interfacing, which is nice. And I wasn't planning on the yellow for the lining, but it just looked so cheerful sitting there on the rack at the fabric store that I couldn't resist it.

Here's the bag in action.



Notes for next time: I keep picturing it in a ticking stripe fabric and loving it. I'd like to (maybe) try making the strap an inch or two longer. And experiment with some sort of fastener.

Simple tote

Wow, it is really gift-giving season around here. This weekend we were downstate again, this time for a five-year-old neice's birthday party.

I decided to sew up this little tote bag to hold the copy of The Lorax (on recycled paper! how nice!) that we got for her.



It is based on the Simple Tote from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing (errata here), but I resized it to fit the book and made the handles the same length. I should have made it even a little bigger, but the book just fits. I also added a little linen patch on the front on which I embroidered our neice's name (uh, yeah, I blurred that because I'm not sure how her parents feel about having her name on this here little blog, sorry).



I feel like the flannel used as facing between the outer fabric and the lining fabric makes the bag a little thick and bulky, especially since it is so small. But I'm not really sure how to fix that, since I think the quilting cottons I used for the outer fabric and lining fabric would be too thin and wispy on their own. Maybe just using some heavier fabric and omitting the flannel facing would work a bit better.

I bought the fruit fabric maybe a year ago at JoAnn's with no project in mind. I figured it was too cute (and on sale) to pass up, and I'd find a use for it sooner or later. All the rest of the materials came from my little stash, too. Except the embroidery floss. That came from the stash of old craft/sewing goods at my parents' house.