The Magic Chronicle of the Magic Tote Bag
Apr. 12th, 2012 02:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameiaWhich I have now!
So, basically, I saw this pattern and a bunch of fat quarters for sale. The pattern is basically a thing for sewing accessories. And I thought, hey, a bag with many pockets, how useful! The other things in the pattern are useful too. As pencil cases and jewelry organizers.
The instructions, though, sort of made no sense to me? I could get a general idea, but unlike the Simplicity patterns, they're not entirely clear, and certainly don't give a step-by-step look into the process. Nonetheless, I had an idea of how I wanted it to look and with Wilma close by to help me make head and tails of the thing, I began to pick and choose what colour would be what.
So I decided to alternate between the green and blue on each side, and the black as the bottom:
I initially was going to have the row of three pockets a different colour each, but it was a) a pain in the ass and b) more harmonious to have them all alternate, especially since there's a larger pocket as well:
Wilma had brought over a shitload of green cotton twill the other day. She got it for some $3 or something ridiculous like that, and basically gave it to me. It's a strong material that's useful for mock-ups, so I used it to cut out all the pieces! And experiment with others, such as this parasol holder:
I neglected to take pictures of the pieces when they were laid out, but basically, there are two major parts: the outside, and the inner lining. Both of them have the tough green stuff. But I took pictures of each piece as I was making them!
Here is a side pocket. This one is facing front, and is made to hold a water bottle. I drink a lot of water so I need to have something for water bottles always, and it needs to be handy, so it has to be up front.
Here is the (semi)finished front of the bag! The parasol holder (with parasol! But alas the parasol is broken) and I also added some pen holders for good measure. You never know when you might need a pen immediately handy, or if someone else needs a pen. I made them fat enough to accommodate really fat marker-type pens:
Here is the back pocket. I know I have a parasol, but parasols aren't good for rain. And I won't be using this bag only for steampunk! It'll be an everyday bag, and an everyday bag needs a place to stow an umbrella in:
Besides the major pieces, there are also the straps to think about:
You might notice that that's attached to a side-pocket piece. Which has white on it. There IS green stuff there, but I also found a ton of white satiny material at Value Village for like $5, and it's several yards worth, so I snatched it up.
Anyway, the straps in the pattern actually come out the big sides, not the small ones, but I opted for a single long strap. I didn't have the length of a single long strap, so there are actually two strap pieces. Both of them start from the other side on the bottom. Really wish I took a picture to show ya'll, because that's some really reinforced sewing I did there. (Discovered exactly what the "S" function does on my machine... basically SUPER stitching.) I went looking for a belt buckle afterwards.
Anyway, the inner lining stitched together looks like this:
This is the outside, stitched up and ready to be turned out:
The zipper is made of the same colour as the bottom. Seemed good symmetry! Had the devil of the time trying to remember which side goes on which, so in the end I said to myself, "zipper head (when closed) faces light (the lighter side pocket), zipper side (when detached, the side with the zipper) to the front (parasol side)." It worked out well.
Here's a closeup of a corner:
It's actually not even but still serviceable!
Sit the lining next to the stitched-up turned outside:
And basically, the idea in the pattern that the lining sits inside like this:
And you just stitch along the top edges.
Because I like creating work for myself, I wanted the top of the big outer pieces folding in onto the inside of the lining, and then attach a zipper as well.
I seriously scored with the zipper!
It's a 22-inch thing with a rainbow-sheen, matches my buttons really well. My bag is only 14 inches long but that just means I can tuck the rest of the zipper down into the bag, making more work for any potential pickpockets.
The whole attach outer piece to inner lining thing was pretty much where I got stuck for the longest while. The idea is like this:
(OK I guess I should explain that what you're looking at is the lining and the outside. The lining has been pulled out so it lies flat outside the, uh, outside, since I was going to stitch onto the lining.)
But there really isn't a way to machine-sew something like THAT. I kind of stared at it for a long time and then finally opted for something less complicated:
Yeah, it's a simple overcast stitch. And terribly uneven, but it's going to be on the inside and no one will know it's there but me. And you. Plus it adds a nice hand-made touch to the thing.
With that done, I pushed in the lining and went about stitching the top edges of the bag where necessary. Then I added in some ends to the zippers, to make sure they stayed in place:
This is where I discovered that my machine REALLY doesn't like projects with thick material.... I used jean needles, but the machine still complained mightily! Also, the fibres of the thread got caught very often. I wonder if it has to do with the thread type? I got some polyester in place of cotton but it wasn't very strong and kept breaking too.
(Yeah, somewhere in the middle of all this, I ran out of black thread.)
With that in place, this is what the inner lining looks like:
And the bottom of the bag is actually a pretty good handful:
The original pattern called for a piece of cardboard, and Wilma suggested I get some foam and cover it with fabric, but I haven't really decided. I may decide that it can sit on its own.
Then all I had to do left was worry about the straps!
A word about the straps: I had some fabric from the side pockets leftover, as well as from the blue pockets. Initially, I thought it would be nice if the strap had the same pattern as the side pocket it was coming out of, but then I thought it would be more interesting if I switched them around. But the ends of the strap are still the blue pieces.
I also found some belt buckles at Fabricland, and got three: 50mm brass and silver, and one 25mm silver, because I wasn't sure what I would do with the straps yet at the time. Wilma said the brass one looked a lot better, since it matches the colour scheme really well, and I agreed. Also, I just so happened to have some brass eyelets laying around:
I spaced out the eyelets quite a bit for the more general lengths I use:
Really close purse style:
General hip:
I tend to wear the strap across my chest (makes it harder for snatch-thieves), and the strap is damned comfy either way. But the rest of the strap did tend to dangle every which way, so I needed something to hold it in place:
And there you have it! My personal tote bag creation! It is big enough to accommodate all of the following: passports, notebook + pen, 2 pens, wallet, cellphone, tissues, umbrella, parasol, large water bottle, netbook (or 14" laptop, but I'm definitely in the market for a netbook atm, hopefully before May so I can really give this a whirl), toiletries, couple of books, plane boarding passes, letter-size papers. The idea is to have something easy to carry about and through airport security. Right now I have a belt with pockets (which is very steampunk! I love it, but it can get to be a pain) and a little sling-pouch that's not very strong for my passports and tickets. And I hate having to take my backpack on and off.
I'm really trying hard to travel light these days, so for my upcoming May trip, I plan on having just this, and a white rolling carry-on that my mom "loaned" me, for "overnight trips". Shyeah, right.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures! I'll post pictures of my bodices soon.
So, basically, I saw this pattern and a bunch of fat quarters for sale. The pattern is basically a thing for sewing accessories. And I thought, hey, a bag with many pockets, how useful! The other things in the pattern are useful too. As pencil cases and jewelry organizers.
The instructions, though, sort of made no sense to me? I could get a general idea, but unlike the Simplicity patterns, they're not entirely clear, and certainly don't give a step-by-step look into the process. Nonetheless, I had an idea of how I wanted it to look and with Wilma close by to help me make head and tails of the thing, I began to pick and choose what colour would be what.
So I decided to alternate between the green and blue on each side, and the black as the bottom:
I initially was going to have the row of three pockets a different colour each, but it was a) a pain in the ass and b) more harmonious to have them all alternate, especially since there's a larger pocket as well:
Wilma had brought over a shitload of green cotton twill the other day. She got it for some $3 or something ridiculous like that, and basically gave it to me. It's a strong material that's useful for mock-ups, so I used it to cut out all the pieces! And experiment with others, such as this parasol holder:
I neglected to take pictures of the pieces when they were laid out, but basically, there are two major parts: the outside, and the inner lining. Both of them have the tough green stuff. But I took pictures of each piece as I was making them!
Here is a side pocket. This one is facing front, and is made to hold a water bottle. I drink a lot of water so I need to have something for water bottles always, and it needs to be handy, so it has to be up front.
Here is the (semi)finished front of the bag! The parasol holder (with parasol! But alas the parasol is broken) and I also added some pen holders for good measure. You never know when you might need a pen immediately handy, or if someone else needs a pen. I made them fat enough to accommodate really fat marker-type pens:
Here is the back pocket. I know I have a parasol, but parasols aren't good for rain. And I won't be using this bag only for steampunk! It'll be an everyday bag, and an everyday bag needs a place to stow an umbrella in:
Besides the major pieces, there are also the straps to think about:
You might notice that that's attached to a side-pocket piece. Which has white on it. There IS green stuff there, but I also found a ton of white satiny material at Value Village for like $5, and it's several yards worth, so I snatched it up.
Anyway, the straps in the pattern actually come out the big sides, not the small ones, but I opted for a single long strap. I didn't have the length of a single long strap, so there are actually two strap pieces. Both of them start from the other side on the bottom. Really wish I took a picture to show ya'll, because that's some really reinforced sewing I did there. (Discovered exactly what the "S" function does on my machine... basically SUPER stitching.) I went looking for a belt buckle afterwards.
Anyway, the inner lining stitched together looks like this:
This is the outside, stitched up and ready to be turned out:
The zipper is made of the same colour as the bottom. Seemed good symmetry! Had the devil of the time trying to remember which side goes on which, so in the end I said to myself, "zipper head (when closed) faces light (the lighter side pocket), zipper side (when detached, the side with the zipper) to the front (parasol side)." It worked out well.
Here's a closeup of a corner:
It's actually not even but still serviceable!
Sit the lining next to the stitched-up turned outside:
And basically, the idea in the pattern that the lining sits inside like this:
And you just stitch along the top edges.
Because I like creating work for myself, I wanted the top of the big outer pieces folding in onto the inside of the lining, and then attach a zipper as well.
I seriously scored with the zipper!
It's a 22-inch thing with a rainbow-sheen, matches my buttons really well. My bag is only 14 inches long but that just means I can tuck the rest of the zipper down into the bag, making more work for any potential pickpockets.
The whole attach outer piece to inner lining thing was pretty much where I got stuck for the longest while. The idea is like this:
(OK I guess I should explain that what you're looking at is the lining and the outside. The lining has been pulled out so it lies flat outside the, uh, outside, since I was going to stitch onto the lining.)
But there really isn't a way to machine-sew something like THAT. I kind of stared at it for a long time and then finally opted for something less complicated:
Yeah, it's a simple overcast stitch. And terribly uneven, but it's going to be on the inside and no one will know it's there but me. And you. Plus it adds a nice hand-made touch to the thing.
With that done, I pushed in the lining and went about stitching the top edges of the bag where necessary. Then I added in some ends to the zippers, to make sure they stayed in place:
This is where I discovered that my machine REALLY doesn't like projects with thick material.... I used jean needles, but the machine still complained mightily! Also, the fibres of the thread got caught very often. I wonder if it has to do with the thread type? I got some polyester in place of cotton but it wasn't very strong and kept breaking too.
(Yeah, somewhere in the middle of all this, I ran out of black thread.)
With that in place, this is what the inner lining looks like:
And the bottom of the bag is actually a pretty good handful:
The original pattern called for a piece of cardboard, and Wilma suggested I get some foam and cover it with fabric, but I haven't really decided. I may decide that it can sit on its own.
Then all I had to do left was worry about the straps!
A word about the straps: I had some fabric from the side pockets leftover, as well as from the blue pockets. Initially, I thought it would be nice if the strap had the same pattern as the side pocket it was coming out of, but then I thought it would be more interesting if I switched them around. But the ends of the strap are still the blue pieces.
I also found some belt buckles at Fabricland, and got three: 50mm brass and silver, and one 25mm silver, because I wasn't sure what I would do with the straps yet at the time. Wilma said the brass one looked a lot better, since it matches the colour scheme really well, and I agreed. Also, I just so happened to have some brass eyelets laying around:
I spaced out the eyelets quite a bit for the more general lengths I use:
Really close purse style:
General hip:
I tend to wear the strap across my chest (makes it harder for snatch-thieves), and the strap is damned comfy either way. But the rest of the strap did tend to dangle every which way, so I needed something to hold it in place:
And there you have it! My personal tote bag creation! It is big enough to accommodate all of the following: passports, notebook + pen, 2 pens, wallet, cellphone, tissues, umbrella, parasol, large water bottle, netbook (or 14" laptop, but I'm definitely in the market for a netbook atm, hopefully before May so I can really give this a whirl), toiletries, couple of books, plane boarding passes, letter-size papers. The idea is to have something easy to carry about and through airport security. Right now I have a belt with pockets (which is very steampunk! I love it, but it can get to be a pain) and a little sling-pouch that's not very strong for my passports and tickets. And I hate having to take my backpack on and off.
I'm really trying hard to travel light these days, so for my upcoming May trip, I plan on having just this, and a white rolling carry-on that my mom "loaned" me, for "overnight trips". Shyeah, right.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures! I'll post pictures of my bodices soon.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-12 03:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-13 12:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-12 04:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-13 12:07 am (UTC)So proud of you...
Date: 2014-07-14 04:22 pm (UTC)