Mini Duffle Bag

I have a thing for cosmetic /travel bags.  I love them.  I can't get enough of them.  Two years ago my friend gave me one for Christmas that she made.  I loved it and have been wanting to make a few ever since.

I had borrowed this book- Sewing the Seasons by Sandi Henderson; Wiley from the library and in it were instructions for this bag.  I decided to make the medium sized one, Its about 9 inches long, 4 inches high 6 inches wide. The book dimensions seem off to me- though it could be me.  Another thing I didn't like about the book and wondered if there was a page missing, is that the whole part about what do after you cut the corners, seemed to be totally missing. Luckily I searched the Internet for a similar pattern and found out how to do the corners.

Having said that there are a lot of cute things in the book.  I haven't tried any of the other patterns yet. There is a cute little tote in there but really I am on tote overload.

I love how the bag turned out. I didnt make it reversible as the pattern said.  I much prefer it one sided.  Seems like a lot of trouble for something I would not particularly use.

Never even noticed the 'Bring Me' printing on the bag until just now.

Duffle Bag: Simplicity Pattern 2274

It's like I forgot all about this blog.  Truth is I have been thinking about how I would like to grow it. Post more often, have tutorials, gee this sounds like resolutions.  Okay, here are my resolutions for 2014 in the Crafty area of my life. Some of which I have done but I need to continue to do it this year as well.

1. Get more organized in my crafty room (definitely have been working on that the past couple weeks).

2. Create with what I have and stop buying more fabric.

3. Finish my UFO's or rid myself of them.

4. Create an Etsy site to sell my stuff.

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I made this cute little bag from, Simplicity Pattern 2274.

Here is what I liked about the pattern/bag:

I love how big it is, plenty of room to pack stuff for a weekend away and then some.  Perfect for the quilting retreats that I go on where I pack my sheets and towels as well.

I love the side zipper.  Nice place to store things that you might need in a hurry without having to dig through the bag.  It's zippered so you don't have to worry about it falling out either.

I love the little front pocket- great place to stash a ticket as you are getting ready to board.

Here is what I didn't like about the pattern/bag:

Three inch webbing is hard to find so I made my own handles with stabilizer.

I also didn't like the floppiness of the bag- I think I would have used a little more stabilizer.

The one big thing that I didn't like was the quilting/cutting of the main body of the bag.  You should cut it to size after you quilt it.  Depending how close together your quilting is, it will alter the size of the piece. So, quilt it first, large enough so that you can cut away to size as required by pattern.

Would I make it again?  Definitely.  Since I made it for my daughter for Christmas I am sure I need to make it for my other daughter and one for myself.