BFF Bag Pattern

Apparel sewing will always be my first love, but every couple of months I get the urge to make a bag. Luckily, the urge struck me just as Loni from Havin Sew Much Fun asked for testers for her first ever pattern, the BFF Bag. 

Full disclosure: as a child of the 90s, I have a hard time accepting that fanny packs are back. But mom jeans are here and I've worn those, so I guess I should get over it. Not gonna lie, it helps to have a fanny pack that is as cute as this one!

The BFF Bag can be worn as a fanny, or crossbody. There are directions for right or left-handed wearing, which is something I've never seen in a bag pattern. I was thoroughly impressed with Loni's directions and illustrations. You never would've guessed it was her first pattern!

This is the tester version of the bag, but nothing changed in the design during testing, the instructions were just updated to be more clear in some areas. The only word of caution I have for you is to test the strap length a bit. You want it to be able to shorten it enough to wear over your hips, but also be long enough to go crossbody.

This is a quick sew requiring only a small amount of fabric. I was super excited that I could use my last precious scraps of pre-quilted Merchant and Mills fabric (used for a Tamarack here) and this fun coneflower cotton poplin print from LA Finch Fabrics. I interfaced the M&M fabric and that worked well. I made the strap from cotton twill. The pink and white striped trim on the outside pocket is vintage, from a garage sale. I used a magnet closure for the exterior pocket. Everything was from my stash except the hardware.

The interior zip that I had was a few inches too short, so I covered the ends with leather scraps. I added a sweary label inside because, if you know Loni, that just fits her vibe. 

I'd never done the seam binding finish on a bag before, but Loni's directions hold your hand and walk you through it just fine. Be patient and sew slowly. You probably will need a machine that can handle heavy fabrics. When going over the binding and the straps it gets pretty bulky.

I love how this bag turned out, and I think I'll be wearing it a lot this spring and summer! Grab your pattern here.

*I received this pattern for free during testing. All opinions are my own.

Rarely Idle Rectangle Tie Bag

I'm sure there is a limit on how many bags one person needs...I'll let you know if I find it. Today I want to chat about the ZW Rectangle Tie Bag from Rarely Idle!

This is a free pattern/tutorial for a zero waste rectangular tie bag. You can also use it as fabric wrapping paper. All raw edges are contained, there are two sizes (mine is the bigger size) and directions for a custom size.

I used a cotton canvas that I bought in a giant quantity from Jo-Ann's for random projects, including my own wall banner pattern (get it for free when you sign up for my newsletter). The first place this bag went was on a field trip with my oldest daughter when her class visited a one room schoolhouse. She used it as her lunch sack. I also made the rest of her outfit using McCalls 7231.

I love this bag! Definitely the best part of it is how it's finished, so sturdy and secure. It does take more fabric than I expected, but it's roomy so that's fine. The tutorial was easy to follow as well. 

I'm not sure I'd make a bunch of these for wrapping paper, but maybe I would if I had a lot of pretty scraps. There is a lot of topstitching and French seams to create all that sturdiness and I get tired of that kind of thing. I could see it as a project bag for knitting, or the mini size as a notions pouch. All by itself it would make a super cute gift as well as gift wrapping!

If you plan on having a handmade holiday, make sure to grab my new digital printable! It will keep you on track with detailed lists, calendars, and a goal tracker to ensure you're not scrambling to finish projects. Check it out in my Etsy shop here, and save 20% through the end of July!

Sandhill Sling Bag from Noodlehead

I'm definitely a garment sewist at heart, but every now and then I get a hankering to make a bag. Today I have an absolutely gorgeous Sandhill Sling bag, and matching wallet, to show you!

This project started with the fabric. It's from See You at Six, which is a Belgian fabric company. They periodically release collections of prints that are available on multiple bases. I've drooled over them for years, but finally took the plunge when I saw a bag made up with the Foliage Song print. I ordered mine (the base is twill) from StyleMaker Fabrics.

I asked on Instagram which pattern I should make, and Michelle at StyleMaker messaged me to say they had some great Noodlehead patterns in stock. Of course! I was drawn to the Maker Backpack, but it's exactly like my every day bag I carry now lol. Instead, I went with the Sandhill Sling.

I ordered one yard and it was plenty. I lined my bag with khaki cotton twill from my stash. The zips I already had on hand. The hardware is from Sallie Tomato and I got it from StyleMaker as well. The strap is a twill I had in my stash.

There were a few tricky bits to this bag. There is a video sew along, but I admit I didn't watch any of it, so your mileage may vary. I was never confused about the correct step, just physically unable to complete them!

The rounded corners aren't fun to do neatly, and sadly you have to do 16 of them. Just one corner wouldn't be a big deal, but making all four of them meet correctly around one rectangle was frustrating. Make sure you don't start that part unless you're well-rested and well-caffeinated!

The lining is inserted with a drop-in method, meaning you need to sew the lining to the top zipper. You can do this by hand or machine, but either way, you're going to need to hand-baste the zipper first. Because it curves in two places, it's darn near impossible to sew it without hand basting (believe me, I tried, despite the directions warning me!).

The drop-in lining means that the inside looks absolutely beautiful. There is no seam binding or whipstitching a secret hole closed. That said, I'm not sure I'd do a drop-in again. I think I would find a way to leave a hole and turn instead.

I used a piece of leather for the zipper contrast on the front pocket. It's from a giant bag of leather scraps I got at a big box store. If you use fabric here, you're meant to fold it in half, but since leather doesn't fray I used a piece that was cut in half instead.

To match my new bag, I also made a new wallet! I've been carrying a large wallet for more than a decade, and wanted something small to hold just cards. I already had the Everyday Essentials booklet from Noodlehead (used it once before for the tote bag), which contains patterns for the Minimalist Wallet and Mini Minimalist Wallet. I made the mini.

This was a quick, easy sew! Again, I used leather as an accent, and lining fabrics and a zip I had on hand. It IS fairly bulky around the edges, next time I would use something lighter than a twill for the inside pockets. 

You can kind of see in the photos how rounded and lumpy the edges are. This is even after I whacked them with a hammer to flatten them more. Don't suggest I add topstitching--I think it would kill my machine. Like I said, a lighter weight for the inners would help. Through the middle it's 8 layers of fabric plus a couple layers of interfacing.

I'm so happy with this set! The sling bag stays in place better than a backpack, and the wallet is small enough to sneak into our pool bag. Do you stick to garment sewing, or do you also sew bags?

Wool+Wax Wool Felt Tote

I received fabric in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.  No affiliate links have been used. Thank you OCP!

A few months back, a friend tipped me off to the most beautiful tote bag I'd ever seen...this knitting bag from twig&horn. I LOVED the dark grey wool outer, the mixed media with the leather straps, and the large size to accommodate knitting projects. What I did not love was the $180 price tag. So when Organic Cotton Plus contacted me about a review, I had a vague notion of trying to copy the twig&horn bag. That notion became a reality when I saw their 100% wool felt. Available in small sheets, by the yard, or even in ribbon, I couldn't wait to nab some yardage and make my own tote bag.

I selected Charcoal and the color is perfect. The lining is 100% cotton broadcloth in Pumice, which is a sort of pinky-lilac color. I don't believe I've ever worked with broadcloth before. It reminded me of a high quality muslin, although a bit sheer. Perfect for a contrast bag lining and very easy to sew. For straps, I went with black hemp webbing in a width of 1.5".

I spent a lot of time searching for a pattern that would get me close to my inspiration bag. Being primarily a garment sewist, the only bag designer I knew offhand was Noodlehead (Range Backpack, I'm coming for you someday!). I checked out her website and found the Wool+Wax Tote pattern, which looked pretty darn close. I happened to run across her booklet, Everyday Essentials, when I was ordering some fabric from another shop, and added that to my cart. The Everyday Essentials booklet contains the Wool+Wax Tote pattern, and two additional ones, although you can purchase all the patterns separately as PDFs.

The pattern was very easy to follow. I think I spent as much time cutting and interfacing as I did sewing! I used a universal 80/12 needle and a walking foot. The wool felt has no spandex or stretch but I did find the walking foot fed the layers much better than a regular foot. I used pink thread for a subtle contrast with the topstitching. The only change I made was to add a magnetic closure, and also to add some ultra firm stabilizer (left over from this project) to the bottom.

This project should have been super quick and easy, but I ran into one snag that definitely needs discussed. I chose not to prewash the felt. Here is the description from the website:

Dry clean only - if washed, the wool will have a boiled wool look. It can also shrink depending on how hot the temperature of water is - the hotter it is the more it will shrink.

Based on this info, I thought it would be better not to prewash. I knew I was making a bag and that I could spot-clean it as needed. I have a lot of experience with wool, and when washed they all behave differently. I thought it would be better not to risk it.

My thought process would have been fine EXCEPT that I forgot about interfacing. When I began fusing my outer bag pieces to my interfacing, it shrank (wool+heat+water=shrinkage). It wasn't a lot, but it was enough for me to notice the first piece looked different and to compare it to its identical counterpart.

At that point, I had already cut all my pieces, so I had a decision to make. Prewash my remaining yardage and recut (if possible!), or continue with what I had and trim the lining pieces to match my wool as it shrank. I went with option #2, because the thought of wasting all that fabric really bothered me.

As it turned out, it wasn't a big deal. I interfaced the pieces that required it, and trimmed down the ones that didn't shrink. Since this wasn't a complicated pattern it was easy to know how and when to trim. My finished bag is probably a little smaller than drafted but it works just fine for holding my knitting. 

In conclusion, if you want to work with this wool felt (which you should, because it is awesome!) consider whether or not it will ever be hot/wet/washed DURING the project AND after. 

One other item to note: the hemp webbing felt fairly stiff when it arrived, and the black color is VERY black. I was concerned about it bleeding dye when getting wet even incidentally, like in the rain. I prewashed it by hand in my sink with Synthrapol. Synthrapol is a detergent meant to pull out excess dye from fabric. I've used it with my own dye projects to help reduce bleeding color. I was glad I took this precaution because there was dye bleed, although less than I expected. A bonus side effect was that the webbing came out super soft afterward.

I am such a huge natural fibers junky, and working with the items at Organic Cotton Plus is always a treat. I've never been disappointed with the fabrics I've gotten, and their shipping is crazy fast. Check out all their beautiful fabrics here!

Kids' Duffle Bags

I've mentioned my upcoming vacation a couple times, and today I'm sharing a last-minute project perfect for summer trips! I spent weeks constructing my own Portside Duffle, only to realize that my kids don't have anything similar. Since adding a third child into the mix, we've only done a single overnight away from home. Our vacation will be nearly a week, which meant each child needed a bag of her own. No way it was all going to fit into my bag!

I searched Pinterest for a free, quick pattern and ended up finding a tutorial here. Cheap was the name of the game, so I used as much stash material as possible. I found that the tutorial was a little off in fabric estimation, a full yard of 44" wide fabric is what I needed. So far I only have one bag done, the other two are a few steps away from completion.

I used zippers from my stash which appear to be separating sport zippers. Two of them are longer than the tutorial stated, but there are directions for making adjustments. The only thing I purchased was the webbing, from Jo-Ann's.

These bags are highly unstructured and do not contain interfacing. There is a facing for the zipper but no lining. They're basically only going to hold clothing and a toothbrush, perhaps an extra pair of shoes, so I didn't need anything heavy duty. The bags are a pretty quick sew, the longest step was figuring out how to cut out the circles for the ends (hint, I found a plate)!

We leave on our trip next week! Guess I'd better finish up the other two bags...

Linen and Leather Portside Duffle

Wowza this is a big day! My Portside Duffle is complete!

FYI, it's stuffed with a giant pillow!

I've had this pattern for quite a while, I won it as part of the Fabric Mart Fabricista competition close to three years ago. In June we'll be taking a family vacation, and I didn't have anything suitable to pack my stuff. In the last four years we haven't done anything more than a single overnight with family. The Portside should do nicely for the roughly one-week trip (more on the capsule wardrobe planning later).

This is a fairly simple pattern, but I set about making it about three times more difficult. I've always loved Andrea's version at Four Square Walls, so I decided to use faux leather (from Girl Charlee, had it for ages) and basically copy her. Trying to stick with stash fabric as much as possible, I also grabbed a lightweight striped linen that I got from a relative. The lining is a fabulous twill, leftover from a review I did for Organic Cotton Plus. The twill leant the body I needed but couldn't get from the linen. Interfacing was a medium weight fusible from my stash. Not so sure about the combination of linen and leather? Check out this J. Crew version, which costs a mere $495!

Since the fabric and pattern were all stash, I splurged a bit on hardware. As-drafted, the pattern calls for zippers, D-rings and sliders, and swivel hooks. I added rivets, snaps, and feet. All my hardware was bought online at Hardware Elf (a supplier I found somewhat at random via a comment on Andrea's blog), with the exception of the magnetic snap, which was from Jo-Ann's, and the zippers on this bag, which were stash.

Strap webbing was purchased from AGraffSupplies on Etsy, via a recommendation on Lauren Taylor's blog. I purchased zippers for the Dopp kit and the zippered pouch (pictured above), but haven't made them yet.

As I mentioned, I changed a lot of things!

Changes:
Added feet
Added rivets
Constructed my own handles
Purchased 1" strapping instead of 1 1/4" (sliders, D-rings, and hooks are 1")
Added a magnetic snap to one of the outer pockets
Added interior patch pockets
Added interior zippered pocket
Added interior elasticized pockets
Added a label
Added pull tabs
Made a removable bottom
Interfaced lining instead of outer fabric (since it was leather)

Phew! I ended up printing the directions and making copious amounts of notes between steps to accommodate my changes. I've never made a bag of this level and I ran through the process over and over to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I also labeled my pattern pieces "leather" and "linen" because they're a little confusing as-is. They simply say "self" and "contrast" and it wasn't clear which was which (hint: it's the opposite of what you think).

The handles and pull tabs (near the zipper) are made from 4 1/2" strips of faux leather tri-folded and stitched down on both vertical sides, for a final width of 1 1/2". I opted for leather straps instead of webbing, I just thought it looked nicer.

For the three types of interior pockets, I used tutorials I found on Pinterest (patch, zippered, elastic). The removable bottom didn't need much of a tutorial, it's just two additional pieces of the bottom sewn together with this heavy weight fusible in between. The feet are screw-in and required quite a bit of reinforcement as the length of my screws was a bit long. I used a second piece of fabric, with interfacing applied, as a sort of underlining to the bottom of the bag. Sandwiched between this "underlining" and the exterior bottom bag were some scraps of felted wool, to get the distance correct. The lining inside the bag covers all this construction.

I did something similar for the rivets, except that I needed to purchase a rivet-setting tool to install them. I bought this one on Amazon.

I also had to reinforce the area behind the magnetic snap. First, I interfaced it, then added more of the felted wool to get the thickness right.

The backing on the male end is covered by the bag lining. The backing on the female end is hidden because I lined that pocket, rather than simply turning down the edge and hemming per the instructions.

Pocket with snap

Hemmed pocket

A few times, I leaned on the Portside Duffle sewalong at Sew News, particularly for the end steps. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to sew the bottom to the bag. Maybe to a bag maker it would be old-hat, but I'm not a bag maker, so I needed the help. I also used the sewalong for assembling the strap, since many reviewers said that they didn't understand Grainline's directions at all.

The faux leather was a huge PITA. Did I mention it's faux STRETCH leather? I cut all the pieces on the crossgrain for more stability, but I still couldn't press it or make it hold still. I ended up using quite a bit of Wash-a-way tape to force it to behave. I had to tape the bottom of my presser foot to get it to move at all on the machine. The linen also had a tendency to grow.

I had planned to use my vintage Singer sewing machine for this project, but I ended up breaking a brand new needle right before starting and thought I'd start with my Brother and switch later. Later never came. I *thought* my Brother (CS-6000i) was handling the project surprisingly well, but now that it's done, I think I might have screwed it up a bit. It's pulling left, something it's always done to some extent, but it's more exaggerated now. I did abuse it quite a bit with the stupid, sticky stretch leather. I have a new presser foot on order (mine has deep grooves on the bottom which seem to be from the feed dogs?) which hopefully will help, otherwise I have to decide about putting money into servicing it, or looking to finally upgrade from this beginner machine (which, no, does not do embroidery, hence the wonky first-grader type writing you see on my label below).

Between the huge amounts of interfacing, the faux leather struggles, the hardware setting, and all my other changes, it took probably close to two months to finish this bag. We also dealt with a crap ton of illness right in the middle. I was glad I'd taken such good notes on my steps, because I forgot them all when I was sick. Speaking of sick, I'm now tired of this thing and will likely be scrambling to finish the Dopp kit and zippered pouch right before the trip.

Despite my current never-want-to-see-it-again feelings, I must admit I love the thing. The bag is sturdy, large, and I don't think it looks homemade at all. If you saw my IG story a week or so ago, then you know a certain five year old put it through a rigorous stress test. I can't wait to pack it full of me-made clothes and take it on our trip this summer!

I received the pattern for free from Fabric Mart, and the twill lining for free from Organic Cotton Plus in exchange for a previous review. This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own.