Well it’s
been a while since I last made a bag. I
hadn’t intended to leave it this long but I’ve been having a break from bag
making. Now I’m itching to get back to
it.
This is a
small bag for my sat nav. My car doesn’t
have a built-in device so I take my trusty TomTom with me wherever I go. It has always been stored in its hard case,
but it was a really tight fit and I struggled to get the zip done up. Eventually the zip broke and so it was time
for a new bag.
I made this slightly
bigger so that it would be a more comfortable fit and used bag foam to protect
it. It has a simple Velcro closure so it
was super easy to make. The Festival of
Quilts is on in a couple of weeks’ time and quilting was on my mind, so I
decided to quilt it to make it a bit more interesting. I’m not good at adding piping so I included
it because I like a challenge.
The
dimensions can be altered to fit any ‘fat’ device such as a camera, charger,
etc. (a bag for a flattish device like a laptop, phone or tablet wouldn’t need
the gusset/side). As all devices vary, you should tailor it to your own
device. I probably should have made this
a bit shorter as it ended up being a little tall for my sat nav.
I thought
about adding a strap or handle but decided against it as the strap on my old hard
case always got in the way. You could
easily attach a handle to the flap or to the top of the side panel if you
wanted to.
You will need
2 fat quarters – 1 for the outer fabric and one for the lining as well as the
same amount of wadding or bag foam. The fabric needs to be non-directional
otherwise the print will be upside down when you fold the flap over.
I used bag foam for the front and back, but
wadding for the sides as this made the bag a bit more flexible. Truth be told,
I ran out of bag foam! If you want a
very firm bag, use bag foam and if you want a soft bag, use
wadding/fleece. If you prefer something
in the middle, as I did, use a combination of the 2.
The finished
size is approximately 5½”/14 cm wide, 5½"/14 cm high and 2”/5 cm deep.
Skill level: Intermediate
– it is quite tricky to manoeuvre around such a small bag when adding piping,
and sewing curves.
I used a
longer stitch length as I was using foam which is fairly thick. I used 3.5 for the quilting and most of the
seams and 4.5 for top stitching. I used
¼”/6 mm seams for the outer bag and slighter wider seams for the lining.
I have
included metric and imperial measurements but they are not exactly
interchangeable, so you should stick to either one or the other.
Skills used in this project:
Step 1: Cutting out
Cut out the
following (but note the changes I suggest at the end):
6”/15 cm x 9½”/24
cm Bag back and flap (cut 1 outer fabric, one lining and one wadding/bag foam).
Cut a gentle curve into two corners of one of the 6”/15 cm sides – see images
below. The curved end will be the bottom of the bag.
6”/15 cm x
5½”/14 cm Bag front (cut 1 outer fabric, one lining and one wadding/bag foam).
Cut a gentle curve into two corners of one of the 6”/15 cm sides – see images
below.
2½”/ 6.5 cm x
17”/ 43 cm Bag side
46”/ 117 cm narrow
piping cord
47”/120 cm Bias
binding
5”/12.5 cm
strip of Velcro
Step 2: Quilting the outer bag
Temporarily
attach the outer fabric pieces to the corresponding foam/wadding using
pins/fabric glue.
Decide on
your quilting pattern. I usually choose
freeform free motion embroidery squiggles, but for this bag I chose diagonal
lines. I drew the first line onto the
fabric with my Clover air dry pen and sewed over it, using the spacing bar on
my machine to keep all the lines the same width apart. This pen is great
because it gradually fades but if you want to remove immediately e.g. because
you’ve made a mistake, it also has an eraser. I didn't realise until half way through that I could have just followed the pattern on the fabric!!
Quilt all
parts of the outer bag.
Step 3: Making the piping
I cut the
piping into two lengths – 16”/41 cm for the front and the rest for the
back/flap. I cut the bias binding the same
length for the front but there was an extra inch to overlap it for the back.
The binding can be bought or cut on the bias from a piece of fabric. It needs to be bias-cut as it needs some
flexibility/stretch when going round the curves; straight cut binding just goes
lumpy and looks ugly around curves.
Fold the
binding around the piping and sew close to the piping using a zip foot.
Step 4: Attaching the piping to the
bag
Trim the
binding so that the flat part of the binding measures the same as your seam
allowance. I used ¼”/6 mm seams and
trimmed the binding so that it measured ¼”/6 mm from the line I stitched in
step 3 to the edge.
Pin the
piping to the right side of the bag front starting at one top side and going
round the bottom and up to the other top side.
There is no piping along the front top.
Match the edge of the binding with the edge of the fabric. Sew it in place using a zip foot.
Do the same for the
back/flap but this time the piping will go all round so you will need to make a
neat join somewhere. I chose to have my
join at the bottom. Leave the first half
inch/12mm unsewn. Sew all round and stop
about an inch/2.5 cm before you get back to where you started. Trim the cord so that the start and end meet
seamlessly. Fold one end of the binding
over to hide the raw edge, overlap it over the bias binding where you started
and wrap it round. This will make a neat
join. Sew the end/beginning of the
binding in place.
Step 5: Assembling the outer bag
Pin then sew
the side to the front, right sides together, close to the piping, using a zip
foot. I made the side a bit longer than
needed and trimmed it afterwards so that it matched the top of the front.
Now pin the
side to the back, right sides together close to the piping. To find the centre,
fold the side in half and mark the centre point at the bottom of the bag. Do the same for the back. Match up these points and pin, then sew the
side to the front.
Make a few
snips in the seam allowance at the corners so that the seams lay nice and flat or trim with pinking shears close to the seam.
Cut the edge
of the bag foam back as close to the seam as you can. I forgot to do this but it makes a much
neater finish if you do it, especially around the flap.
Step 6: Assembling the lining
Using your general purpose foot, sew the side lining to the front lining, right sides together and trim it to size. Then sew the side to the back lining, as above, leaving a gap at the bottom for turning through. Snip the corners as above.
Step 7: Attaching the lining
With right
sides together, place the lining over the outer bag and sew around the opening
and flap. Turn through. Sew up the gap
in the lining.
Top stitch
around the top of the sides and front to create a neat finish and keep the
lining/outer fabrics firmly in place.
You will be sewing through several layers here, so a longer stitch
length will be needed. I used 4.5.
Step 8: Attaching the velcro
Usually I
would attach the closure before joining the lining, but I decided with this bag
that it would be better to add it afterwards and make a feature of it.
Place your
device in the bag and pull the flap over to work out where the Velcro needs to
go. Trim it to size. Pin it and sew in
place through all the layers. This would
be the time to add any embellishments to the front if you wanted to.
I made a
feature of it by using red thread on white Velcro which would have looked good
if I had sewn in a straight line!
***
Now put your
device in its new home and give yourself a treat for all that hard work! I shall take my sat nav for a little outing
to the coast when it finally stops raining.
In this project I learnt:
- I hadn’t used
the quilting space bar for a long time and I had forgotten how easy it makes
straight line quilting. It was done in no time and all the stitches were the
same length, unlike free motion embroidery where I struggle to keep them even.
- I still hate
piping. I’ve never been any good at it
and that hasn’t changed. However, I was
pleased with the look of the bag. It
wouldn’t have looked as good without the piping.
- I made the
pouch bigger than my previous sat nav bag which broke because it was too small. However, I over-compensated and could have
made it about an inch/2.5 cm shorter in height and it would still have been a
comfortable fit. I might end up using it
for a different device, but it serves it purpose for now and will stand out in
my glove compartment.
