I’ve been thinking about sewing travel gear for a while now; when I found this pattern on Saturday night, I had to add clear vinyl and some zippers to my JoAnn list and start it on Sunday afternoon. I finished it up Monday and I’m just tickled with it.
I’ve made complicated things before–curtains, quilts, entire coats–but the sense of accomplishment I got from this is equal to or greater than those projects. Maybe because I don’t usually sew bags? Maybe because…there’s a zip down pocket in clear vinyl you can put your makeup in?!
The pattern is the “All In One Box Pouch” by new-to-me Aneela Hoey and it was so easy to follow. I don’t love how bag patterns just give you dimensions, not actual pattern pieces to cut out, but everything here fit together really well. The only hard part was getting the zipper tape to curve evenly around the edges of the vinyl pocket but that just was fiddly, not impossible.
I used leftover outdoor fabric from my slipcover project last year and lined it in some silicon-backed ripstop I had on hand from various hiking jacket projects, so it’s all waterproof. Instead of fusible fleece interfacing as recommended, I sewed in some foam stabilizer I’d bought back in January and wow, that makes for a professional finish.
I guess I need to make that carry-on bag now and then I’ll have a whole travel set I made. Next step: actually traveling somewhere.