Weekender Bag - progress - internal pockets and piping

May 18, 2013

Thanks for your help with the fabric choices for my weekender bag. I've gone with the first option, one of my favourites from Kate Spain!

Of course I can never follow a pattern properly and started arse-about with the lining! After reading many blog posts on the weekender bag and talking to some of my favourite experts in the sewing field, I felt that internal elastic pockets on both side were the way to go. I like the little zippered ones people are adding too but I think the elastic open pockets will be more useful to us.

I used Summer House by Lily Ashbury for the lining. Each of the internal pockets are a simple rectangle about 10" x 24", folded over 1/4 inch twice, to make a casing for 3mm elastic. Gathering stitches added to the bottom to pull it in. Iron a fold down the centre of each piece to match them up and pin all the way around. I sew my basting stitches very close to the raw edge so that it won't be seen in the final seam and I use a regular stitch length.

I round off this corner edge with scissor before sewing so that I maintain the right shape of the bag piece.

No flash - a truer representation of the colour - very much an aqua rather than a light blue

The pockets as you can see are sewn down the middle to seperate into 2 smaller pockets rather than 1 larger one. I've made 1 matching the lining and the other out of the piping fabric, hopefully when the bag is in use it will make it easier to remember which pocket I put things in to save too much searching around for stuff!

I also had my first go ever at making piping. There is 5 metres of it here pouring out the back of the machine. It wasn't too hard to make at all.....but I haven't attempted to add it to anything yet that will be the real test!