The Bag - The Prototype

Well, I made the first prototype of The Bag. It's a big one, and the picture shows it on my back stuffed with a pillow. Currently, it's sitting on the floor by my knitting chair, full of goodies I'm working on, cheat sheets (where I forget just how to do a do a certain type of cast-on or something), my knitting notebook, and what have you. As a knitting bag, it will do just dandy!

There's a lot of things I'll do differently when I make this again, and I'll make note of those things, where I don't cover them in the instructions, at the bottom of this post. The first thing I'll do, of course, is make the bag smaller!

But in the meantime, here's how this bag was constructed.

Fabrics used for this bag
Outer bag is corduroy
Inner bag (liner) is cotton
Bottom and the casing around the top is suede cloth
Loops are heavy denim
Straps are constructed of polyester (satin-like) fabric covering sturdy cotton webbing

Other supplies
Zippers for inside pockets
Key clips for inside
Quick Links
Strap adjusters
1-inch cotton webbing

Basic dimensions
22" wide by 18" deep

Instructions



Outer fabric: Cut a piece anywhere from 18 to 22 inches wide and 36 inches long. When folded in half, this creates bag of desired width and 18 inches deep. I used corduroy because it this piece was a remnant I knew I didn't want to use for anything else. I normally use twill or denim-weight when I make bags.

Bag bottom: Cut 12 inches of sturdy fabric, at least the width of the bag, for the bottom of the bag. This will be sewn, center line to center line, across the length of the bag giving the bottom of the bag more durability and strength. I used suede cloth - seemingly a fairly good quality - and I will never do that again! My sewing machine needle didn't want to go through it. It's as though it were made of a rubbery substance. I usually use a contrasting twill or denim-weight when I make bags.

Lining: Cut lining same size as bag but about 6 to 8 inches longer to accommodate 3-inch overlap at top.

Loops to hold straps: Cut two strips of sturdy fabric for loops to hold Quick Links and six to eight loops, wide enough to hold strap. Sew these together so that loops are a double thickness of fabric, with four layers of fabric where the seams are folded under. I think this makes the loops sturdier and stronger. This is denim or denim-weight fabric. The finished entire strip for the loops is maybe 40 inches long.



Inside pockets: Cut fabric for inside pockets and construct them.

Cut bias strips about 5" long to hold key clips. These will be attached at top edges of at least one pocket.

Outside patch pocket: Cut about 9" x 12" piece for outside patch pocket.

Fold and press lining, bag fabric, and double bottom so that the center is well marked. This will make the centering easier when pinning the layers together.

Pin the bag

* Pin lining fabric to bag fabric wrong side to wrong side.

* Center envelope bottom fabric on right side of bag fabric and pin.
* Cut two 4-inch strips from the loop-strap strip, insert Quick Links, fold the straps, and pin between envelope bottom and bag on the side that will be next to my back. The outside edge of each strip is about 3-1/2 inches from each edge of the backpack. This is to allow for the envelope bottom expansion. (I think next time I will make a rectangle bottom instead of an envelope-style bottom.)

* Fold down and sew top edge of patch pocket and then center patch pocket between loops holding Quick Links and pin.

* Fold lining at top to outside, fold under raw edge, and pin. (This creates a decorative top to the bag, as well as fortifying the construction, but it seems to be necessary to do something like this so I have a place to attach the top loops. It's possible that I could sew these loops to the inside of the bag between the lining and the bag itself. I'll rethink this next time around.)

Sew the basic bag
* Sew the top where the lining is folded to the outside of the bag.
* Lift pinned double bottom and sew patch pocket sides.
* Sew the double bottom to the bag.

Attach the inside pockets

* Pin bias strips behind zipper pockets and pin both to lower part of the inside upper edge. (I will be placing the casing on the outside over this, so I needed to be careful of where I sewed things together. I wanted the zippers low enough that they wouldn't interfere.)



Putting it all together

* Fold bag in half, right sides together, matching sides at the top.

* Pin the top edges together to secure them.


* Find the center fold at the bottom of the bag, and fold it inward so that the center fold lays along the seam lines for the double bottom. Pin securely. Because my choice of fabrics for this prototype was ill-advised (the suede almost did me in, although it is attractive), this was a very, very, very thick bunch of fabric to sew together.

* Using a triple lock seam, or by seaming more than once, sew the side seams. When making an envelope bottom, there is always a lot of stress on the intersection where the center bottom is folded up to meet the top edge of the envelope. Securing this area well is vital. I used a jeans needle, sew from the bottom of the bag to the top, and then turn the bag over and resew the intersection, beginning about an inch before the intersection and down to the bottom of the bag.

* Serge side seams (or finish side seams in some other way).

Add the loops for the shoulder straps

* Turn the bag right side out and find the side folds created by the envelope. Fold sides in along those folds.

* Fold and pin four 5-inch strips, in the form of loops, along one side of the top, evenly spaced. The outer loops should align with the side fold.

* Fold and pin an additional four strips, in the form of loops, at the same place along the other side.

* Sew the loops in place. The raw edges will be covered by a decorative casing in the next step. Remember that the inside pockets are also sewn to the top, so I was careful when I attached the loops. I used a triple-lock stitch because I believe these straps will receive some stress from holding the shoulder straps.

Casing to cover loops

Cut (and piece, if necessary) a strip for a casing which will cover the top border, including the raw edges of the loops. The casing will cover only the top part of the border because the inside pockets lay at the bottom of the border. It would be possible to lift the pockets and cover more of the top border, but I choose not to do that with this bag. The width of the strip should be sufficient to cover the border created by the lining plus an allowance to fold under. My strip was 2-1/2 inches for this bag.

The casing can hold a draw string, so I left an opening.

*Sewing the casing on the bag is a three-step process:
- Starting with the finished edge in the center of the bag, between the two loops over the patch pocket, lay the raw edge of the casing, with the balance of the fabric away from the bag, about 1/2 inch from the top. When the casing meets itself, leave sufficient to fold back and create a finished end, cut off the balance of the strip, and then stitch the end closed. The two finished ends will butt up against each other, leaving a tunnel through which I can insert a draw string.

*Sew about 1/4" seam around the bag. Be sure to fold fold the beginning of the casing back and lay the end of the casing over the fold so that the raw beginning and ending edges are tucked inside the casing.
- Turn the casing fabric toward the bag and top stitch around.
- Turn under the bottom edge of the casing and seam around.

Then came the iffy problem I was thinking about the whole time. The straps!!!

Lauren found some webbing for me to use - nice and sturdy - so that was good. I pondered how to connect them to the Quick Links, and I finally settled on some shoulder strap adjusting do-dads. I pinned them before I permanently attached them, thank goodness, and found that the webbing wouldn't slip through my top loops as easily as I wanted them to. So I ended up covering the webbing, where it goes through the loops, with some slick polyester. That works just fine.

All in all, I learned a lot while constructing the bag. Some things I will remember for next time, though:

* Use lighter-weight fabrics.
* Don't use that suede cloth (thank goodness I had only a small remnant, so there's not much that will go to waste!)
* Make the bag smaller.
* Use a standard backpack bottom - not the envelope type.
* Quick Links are perfectly acceptable for the permanent link for the loops where the straps are connected to the bottom.