Duffle bag

I'm not much of a bag sewer - I tend towards leather handbags and I use a small suitcase normally for holidays. But a duffle bag is always good, easy to fold down into a suitcase for extra fabric shopping storage, lol!
This is my second version, I made myself a boring plain grey one and the daughter picked out this fabric from my stash. I have to admit I'm a bit jealous at how good it looks!

Pattern details:

I used a free pattern from here.

I changed a couple of things design wise - I joined the separate base and side pattern pieces and cut the outer as a single piece. Added a big inside zippered pocket and also added pockets to the ends inside as well. I don't have much craft/bag interfacing so used a woven fusible interfacing I had at home to fuse both the lining and the outer.

Fabric is a digital scuba knit from Spotlight and the lining is a thicker old nylon lining fabric (sort of feels like a ripstop nylon).

I bought the webbing from spotlight as well as the plastic clips. The pattern asks for swivel hooks but I couldn't find them locally so used clips on the straps instead.

Amber wanted a shoulder protector that slips over the strap. I used some scrap wadding and quilted it then bias bound the edges. I copied the shape from an existing bag we have,.

I'm pretty impressed with this pattern, everything turned out pretty good. A couple notes if you don't normally sew bags though;

• make sure you interface it if you aren't using a heavy canvas/duck cotton.
• Add in the outer end pockets even if you don't think you'll use them, they help support and shape the ends.

 

Its a surprisingly huge bag, I took mine recently on an overnight trip to Adelaide and it fitted heaps in, I'm holding it here to give a perspective on how big it is.

Burdastyle Sewing Handbook: Bag

My poor handbag is falling to pieces and I can't find anything I like in the stores at the moment so thought I'd have a go at making a bag. This is the pattern from the Burdastyle handbook, its the main version of the bag with a couple of changes like inside pockets and different straps.

I had fabric leftover from my rose trench coat so first made an underlined pencil skirt....... which bagged out and looked terrible so I unpicked it and remade it as a lined pencil skirt....which fitted badly enough I didn't even hem it. So it was oddly satisfying chopping it up for this bag! I reused the original skirt lining too as the bag lining.

The straps were originally sleeve bands for the trench coat which I left off so it was nice to use them for the straps since I'd already done bound buttonholes in them. The silver buttons are out of my stash.

 

Because I was using a thinish cotton sateen for the bag I interfaced it and also used fusible fleece on the lining to give it a bit of thickness and strength. Haven't used fusible fleece before but it went on really easily and adds a bit of heft to the bag without making it too stiff.

 

I added a couple of open pockets to the inside for my iphone and a magnetic closure. It would have been nice to add a zipper to the bag and a inside zippered pocket too but it hurt my head too much thinking about it so went the easy way! Surprisingly Spotlight had a decent range of bag making notions, its where I got the d-rings and the magnetic closure from.

 

I'm still a sucker for a nice leather handbag, but this cost next to nothing (about $10 all up for the fusible fleece and the notions) and its a lot nicer than what I've been using. I do think its too deep though and not wide enough, I didn't gather the top of it as much as the pattern says because I wouldn't have been able to fit my wallet in. Next version will be wider by about 2" and lower by about 2" with a padded ipad pocket inside and there will be a next one, I really enjoyed making this!