08 January, 2014

Craftsy Bag Making


After Crafty Tokyo Mama made her boxy pouch, I thought I would whip one out too. This is a free class on craftsy called No Guts Boxy Pouch.
My son came home over the holiday and I was eyeing his ditty bag on the bathroom counter when I saw Janine's.



A couple of people had problems with the tab measurements and the ability for this bag to stand up on it's own.
I fixed the tab by making it longer (2"x 3" instead of 1" x 3") so you have something to grip when you sew it onto your bag.
The other problem that came up in the reviews lies in it's designed ability to be a bag that can be folded flat - for space saving. It probably never will stand up on it's own.

I picked a homedec weight fabric from Finlayson in finland and interfaced this. However, my lining is a quilting cotton from the Summerville line. Cute choices but they don't match in weight.
While I can get my bag to stand up, I had to tack in each corner so lining doesn't wallow around inside the bag.
In fact, when looking at my son's ditty bag (complete with zippered pockets), that one used bias tape to finish the inside seams. When you create the boxy corners, I can see why grabbing the lining too might be a great idea.
How they did it on my sons ditty bag was to create the zippered pockets (outside fabric and inside in the lining), then fuse the lining to the outer fabric. The gussets were sewn from the inside with tape covering the raw edges. Then You don't have a fiddly lining.



My home dec fabric was so stiff and the pouch not long enough, I had trouble sewing the gussets.

If I was to make this again, I would make this longer by two inches.
Or, I would sew the gussets at 1.5" instead of the 2" as directed. 

That would elongate the bag, which I would prefer.


It did turn out cute. This would be a fun giveaway item, filled with sewing and/or chocolate treasures.




It does open wide.




And closed up - quite square.
Struggling to sew gusset corners created a lot of wrinkles in my outer fabric. I took a wad of wool felt (still out from Christmasy makes) and ironed the outside by having the wad of felt inside pressing back.


Good directions for a free pattern.



2 comments:

  1. Great idea to use it for a giveaway. I really don't need to use mine, either, and I'm not particularly happy with the size. You are right that it needs to be either longer or have smaller gussets, then it would be more useful.

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  2. That is really cute! but yeah, what do you put in it? it opens so wide that it looks like your stuff would fall out.

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