I am thinking of starting a new regular series of blog posts: Sewing and Design Meet. A place to showcase those projects where my fabric designer self and my sewing self come together to create a project! (Or in simpler terms: When I sew stuff with my own fabric designs 🙂 ).
I am kicking off the series with a trio of bags created from 1/2 yard of my Hip Sequential (Cool) design printed on Eco Canvas by Spoonflower.
DESIGN:
A look at the pattern:
This pattern was actually created during a special Spoonflower design challenge last spring. The theme for this day of the challenge was geometric and I had a little flash of inspiration! I really liked the idea of solid and divided rectangles slowing getting smaller in width in sequential order. The end pattern worked so well with my existing Hip Geometrics Collection I have since added it in all four collection colorways as well!
SEWING:
When I ordered my fabric, Spoonflower did not yet offer their Fill-A-Yard service so I had to create mine manually by uploading a full yard design file divided into two patterns. My thought was that 1/2 yard on the wide fabric should be enough for two bags/totes of some kind, although I did not have a specific pattern in mind when I ordered. I chose Eco-canvas as my substrate as Spoonflower was having an amazing 1/2 price sale on it at the time. A look at the printed fabric:
I had the fabric for quite a while when I saw a few free tote tutorials by Purl Soho and knew I had found the right bag for this print! For this pattern I chose the Railroad Tote. I thought the rectangular shape was a good pairing for the geometric print. To pair with my fabric I purchased some Kaufman Big Sur Canvas in Solid Gray. Buying online is usually a bit of a gamble (unless you have purchased the exact product before) so I was quite excited to see how perfectly the canvas I chose matched both this print AND the other pattern, Transit Lines, I had printed with it.
I mostly made the tote per instructions. Since I had plenty of the canvas and I like pockets on my bags I decided to add the pocket to BOTH sides of the tote. I also changed the finishing order a bit so that I could have the tops of my side seams enclosed in the folded over edge of the top of the bag. This required a few more steps and was a bit trickier to sew this way, but well worth it for the final result!
I am very happy with how the bag turned out but I would make a few tweaks for the next one. The side pockets end up being very tall and skinny. While the look from the outside is quite lovely I would prefer them to be less deep, so next time I would modify them somehow. I also plan on making it bigger overall.
I had a long skinny piece of this print left over and plenty of the gray canvas so I decided to sew up some zippy pouches with the left overs. Originally these were supposed to be a bigger and smaller pouch in two different styles and the zippers I purchased for them are 2″ different in length. However, I did not anticipate that the style of the bigger pouch made it appear smaller and the extensions I added to the smaller pouch would increase its size so much. In the end they are almost the same size!
For the “larger” pouch (Top bag in the photo) I used another free bag pattern: The Open Wide Zippered Pouch by Noodlehead. I have used this pattern before and it is a really nifty design! (Do people still say nifty?) I can’t remember for sure which size I made but I think it was the smallest one as I am fairly certain I used a 9″ zipper. I know the pattern calls for 10″, but you really can’t find that easily at any stores by me. Not sure if I made the bag smaller to compensate, but having made it before I knew that the zip overhangs a lot so there is definitely wiggle room there.
The “smaller” pouch is just a basic rectangle lined zipper pouch using a 7″ zipper. To give it a little extra flair I added the little canvas loop to the side. I also chose to add canvas extenders to each side of the zipper so that the ends wouldn’t pull into the sides of the pouch. I used the technique outlined by my fellow Spoonflower designer and friend Ceri for her cut and sew pouch project: The Hand Strap Clutch. You can see both details in the photo below. You can also get a small glimpse of the lining. For both zipper pouches I used a “textured look” quilting cotton, “Crosshatch Sketch”, that I purchased from Hawthorne Threads. They no longer have the color I chose: Fog, but there are several other colors available that might pair well with this print. There are of course many color match choices in my Spoonflower shop too, including this teal color version of my Hip Shapes design.
One last note: The Eco-Canvas is not as stiff as normal canvas (definitely not as stiff as the Big Sur Canvas I paired it with) and tends to flop around a little. I highly recommend using interfacing if you want a bit more structure to whatever you are making with it. I added a very light interfacing to both zippered pouches and really liked the bit of structure it gave. Unfortunately the inside of the canvas is exposed on the tote so you would have to give it a lining if you wanted to add interfacing there. I have the other 1/2 yard of my Eco-Canvas left with the other print I chose to use for a second tote and I am currently brainstorming ideas of how I can add lining/double layer to the top pieces, so I can interface that one! If anyone has any suggestions, I will be making the Everyday Tote with it.
I’ll leave you with a few more views of the bags!
Thanks for reading!
Brenda
Brenda Zapotosky 