Sewing - Overnight Duffel

I little while ago I signed up to go on a yoga retreat, and I've been looking forward to it. But, looking at my various luggage options there wasn't anything which made me think "yoga retreat" or that would be the sort of size/style I wanted.
I browsed Pinterest (here's my yoga retreat pinterest board) for some ideas, and I thought that the Overnight Duffel from The Stitching Scientist was a good fit.

Once I had decided that this was the bag for me, I had to find some appropriate fabric. I wanted something hardwearing, but also attractive. After a brief search I found this lovely Rose and Hubble Paris inspired fabric at my favourite online fabric store, Remnant House. I also picked up a nice cotton for the contrast and lining.



I then began my search for all the other bits I needed. I knew I wanted a zip which would open in the middle, a must for a bag like this if you ask me. I also wanted to add a shoulder strap to the bag as I'm often carrying or holding hands with a toddler and cross-body bags rock for that. This meant that I needed some extra hardwear, specifically a strap adjuster, D-rings, and clip ends for the strap. On the advice of my knitting/sewing online friends on Ravelry, I also got some fuseable fleece for the main bag, and some medium-weight fuseable interfacing.

I printed out the pattern, but I ended up with pieces which just didn't look big enough. So, instead of trying to re-print them (given the difference could be US Letter paper vs A4, or my printer, or the PDF scaling, or a number of other issues) I decided I would simply create my own pieces, but then follow the instructions. The main difference in doing this is that I have redrawn the ends as rectangles with semi-circles on top (for ease of maths) rather than ovals. This also means that the pockets are square. I did a bit of maths to ensure that all my pieces would fit on the fabric, and worked out a layout to cut the pieces.

The two-ended zip that I bought was an X zip - so when you open it the sliders come from either end.



However, I wanted them to come from the middle, so I followed Thread Riding Hood's tutorial to do just that.



The other main thing I did differently was when inserting the zip. As written, the pattern suggests sewing the main body inside and outside pieces together, then turning them, then inserting the zip between them. However, this would still leave the bare edge of the zip visible inside the bag.
I simply sewed the zip in at the same time as making the top seam of the pieces. This was a little tricky because it meant that when sewing the other side seams of these pieces, I had to fold and pin the other half of the bag sides out of the way. I think it was worth it though.



Making the shoulder strap has been quite a learning experience. It's important to attach the hardware in the right order. As the swivel-clips don't have a gap to thread the strap through, these have to be inserted and sewn on. The strap adjuster also needs to be sewn on, with the end of the strap looping around the middle bar of the adjuster. I think it works well, but in future I will consider webbing for the straps.



Verdict

The pattern is nicely written, and if I'd followed it exactly I would still have got a great bag. My modifications just personalise it a little bit.

Adding fuseable fleece was a great idea, it makes the bag seem quite luxurious! I did fleece and medium interfacing on the bottom piece for extra strength, and I'm pleased I did that too.

I might make another of these bags, though if I do I'd consider making it a bit bigger to hold a weekend worth of clothes for everyone. It's been a nice introduction to making bags though, with no interior zips to worry about or strange fastenings.

I especially like the interior finishing, achieved effectively by sewing all the lining pieces to their outers before construction of the bag. I think if one wanted to add more pockets this method of construction would lend itself to doing so quite efficiently. I liked the canvas, but I found it quite hard to sew. Even with my walking foot it wasn't always feeding through evenly with the cotton. This would probably be less of a problem if both fabrics had been craft cotton.


Fitting the ends into the tube made by the bottom and sides wasn't easy either, partly due to some fit issues I had (the base wasn't quite wide enough, I think because of the conversion from oval to D shaped end.

I also had to think about placement of the tabs for the D-rings, Attaching these had to be done after the end pieces had been assembled, which was made harder by the fact that I wanted to sew them below the top of the pockets.

I'm looking forward to giving this bag its first outing at the Yoga retreat. I just wish I'd made it big enough to hold my Yoga mat too! Oh well. Maybe next time...