Aaaaaaand surprise, surprise, the girl is me! Yes, yes, I am very picky person and I must admit that the struggle of finding proper school bag is real!! I t has to be big, so that I can fit everything in. And trust me, I carry around lot of stuff, not many handbags can fit in laptop, charger, binder, all the books of law I need for my classes, planner, wallet, 2 snacks (and if we lived in a dreamland, then lunch-to-go too!), 1,5 litre of water, lot of lip balms and other stuff that girls usually carry around and they don't even know about that! That is A LOT OF STUFF! I have been searching for the perfect bag for over 2 years now, and man, I got so tired of it that I decided to make it myself. If you are interested in "brief" tutorial, keep reading! :)
First of, let's cover the materials and tools:
- 2m of thicker cotton fabric in royal blue colour
- 40cm zipper in royal blue
- 2x 35cm zippers in royal
- 40 cm of cotton fabric in black
- 30cm of cotton fabric in sand, baby pink and gray
- 20cm of cotton fabric in colours of the rainbow
- 10cm of cotton fabric in dark pink and white
- threads in matching colours
- tailor's chalk
- dressmaker shears
- sewing machine
- white fabric paint
I must admit, that I am really bad at making patterns, so there is like no paper pattern at all for this bag (there are paper patterns for the cat application tho). First of all, I decided how big do I want my bag to be. The size of the bag is 40x40cm and the bottom and sides are 10cm wide. The straps were supposed to be 47cm long (I measured the length of my other bag's straps), but I had to make them bit longer at the end.
Once I decided how big my bag is gonna be, I sketched it on a paper, so that I have some reference to measurements and then I started measuring the fabric and cutting pieces. I cut following pieces:
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| Here you can see how I divided the piece, notice the pocket/cat application space and also those little 5x5 squares at the bottom |
2x side piece
width = 40cm+(2x5cm for sides)+seam allowance;
height = 40cm+5cm for bottom+seam allowance
4x outside pocket piece
width = 37cm+seam allowance; height = 23cm+seam allowance
2x lining piece
dimensions same as side piece
2x inside divider piece
width = 40cm + seam allowance; height = 35cm+seam allowance
2x strap cover piece
width = 2xwidth of strap (in my case 3cm)+seam allowance;
height = 60cm + seam allowance
2x zipper cover piece
width = 2x4cm+seam allowance; height = 38cm+seam allowance
2x top zipper flap piece - width = 40cm+seam allowance;
height = 2x9cm+seam allowance
I left like 4cm for seam allowance for larger pieces and about 2cm for smaller ones, you can trim that after you sew it together, but it is better to have some space to work with. :)
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| Nyan, NYAN! This evil cat look so innocent now, but it took many hours of measuring, cutting and hand sewing... |
First of all, I hand sewn cat application onto the front side piece. I marked the space for the cat on both sides of the piece, because I planned on making the pocket right behind the cat (it is the same size as a cat).
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| This is how I prepared my side piece for sewing the zipper "window". The outer line is tracing the zipper size, but I lowered the length by 1 cm because I didn't want the ends of the zipper to be shown. |
Then I started working on pockets. This is kind of the tricky part, for all the sewing noobs (as me!). I made the mistake of sewing all the four sides of the pocket at the first time. NOPE, don't do that....just sew the top first and then start working on the zipper. I decided to go with the technique of sewing "window" for the zipper on the pocket part first, then sewing in the zipper and then repeating the process with the side piece. Take these extra steps, don't sew all the pieces together in one step especially if you are new to sewing, as it gives you more control of what you are actually sewing and where to.
Once you have sew the zipper to the side piece, you can sew all 3 remaining sides of the pocket together. Then you can start working on the zipper cover piece. I added this, because the zipper looked not very flattering to the bag (AND I needed to cover all the mistakes I made in the process of sewing in the zipper :D). First of all, I cleaned the sides by sewing the edge in. Then I sewn the cover, wrong sides up and then I turned it inside out and ironed it. You generally want to iron all the pieces after you sew, although I am lazy and I ironed only these ones (and also the top zipper pieces, and the whole bag after I boxed it out), as these are crucial. Once I had it ironed, I sewn it in place.
Advice that I learnt the hard way: Make sure to measure where the "in place" is, NOT sew it right on the top of your zipper! Measure it from the line, that represents the top of the bag! You are human, you are imperfect, you might have screwed up a little and have sewn the zipper not as straight as you think and ruin the appearance of the whole bag.
Once you have attached both pockets and covered them up, it is the time to sew the outside of the bag together. That is probably the easiest step of all. I placed the side pieces on top of each other, right sides facing inside and I have sewn them together following the line that I drew by chalk - the very outer line, not the other one. Now is the time to box the bag out, which is why I pointed out the little 5x5cm squares in the beginning.
Then I took the square and pinned it like shown in the picture, so that it forms triangle. I was careful with drawing the lines, so that they match at this point. If it doesn't match, you will want to iron the piece to be boxed out and then figure out where to sew in order to have the desired size of the bag. The next step is obviously sewing along the line, and possibly trimming off the triangle of fabric that you don't need anymore.
Once I have completed this on both sides, I ironed the bag so that it has the nice boxy shape and voilá - the easiest part of the bag is done! :D
True hell begins just now - the inside of the bag. I decided to have the inside divided, so I had to figure out how to box the bag out with the inside divides - it will be sewn into the same seams as the sides, so you can't use previous technique.
I started with sewing the straps. I measured desired length of the straps, which was 2x(100cm (the bag sides)+50cm (the actual strap))+seam allowance. The next step was obvious - making the strap cover pieces. Easy, huh? NOPE! I mean, yea, the sewing itself, but have you ever tried flipping inside out 60cm long fabric tunnel that has only 6 cm in circuit? No? I don't recommend trying that just for fun, because it is NOT fun. Its is pain, the process took me like an eternity. Literally (at 2am, 40 minutes seems like an eternity). Once I was done with this torture, I sewn together covers with straps.
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| The result of sewing the bottom (with straps pinned)... Looks almost done, huh? |
Once I have done that, I sewn the inside divider aka only its top (as the 3 other sides will be sewn with the lining pieces later). One does not simply want to spend any more time with the straps right after flipping them inside out for that obscene amount of time - this is a nice break from those &#!@ing straps!! Now, you want to sew both lining pieces with the divider in the middle together - only on the bottom side. Don't forget that you only want to sew the 40cm middle section, not the 5x5cm square section, that will be used for boxing the whole thing out later.
Back to straps tho, I measured the desired length, rather twice, and then sewn it together. Then I measured where do I want my straps to be on the bag. I went with position 10cm from side of the bag, which is why I measured 8,5cm from actual side (strap is 3cm wide). And there goes pinning and sewing time! Btw - don't forget to keep the divider off your sewing mania! You don't want that to be sewn with straps.
Note: Before sewing straps, make sure that they look as you desire and that they are not somehow twisted or anything.
Now it is the time to box the inside part out. The trickiest part of all. I took the corners as shown in the picture and pinned them along the line of that small 5x5 square as shown in the picture. Bottom line should copy the top line, pins should be on the line on both sides. Then I sewn along the line. Same process with the other corner on that side. Once I have done this, I sewn together both linings and the divides on that side.
I repeated the whole process on the other side and then ironed the whole thing to be boxy.
Almost there! At this point, I painted on the outside part some stars with white fabric paint and ironed it on. I also cut rectangle 10x40cm big out of cardboard and covered it with 2 layers of ducktape. This will be inserted inside to help the bag maintain its shape even when it is loaded with stuff.
Now I fold the inside piece of the bad along the drawn line that represents top and sew all along the top of this inside piece.
Once I have done this, I pinned the top zipper flap pieces together. I cleaned the short side by sewing the seam allowance in. Then I fold it so that the right side face inside and I sewn along and then flip it inside out. Don't forget to iron the flaps.
Then I attached flaps to the top zipper. I did this very carefully, so that it sits very close to the zipper and so that the top part looks really neat.
I also marked where will the flap be sewn to the bag.
One of the lasts steps is going to be sewing flap to the inside of the bag (not the outside part, you don't want more seams than necessary to be visible on the bag). I measured where to sew the flaps and pin it in - mine went 3,5cm below the top. I also sewn bottom of the flap to the inside part of bag.
After doing so, I just placed the cardboard inside the bag, then put the inside piece of the bag inside too and pinned top parts of both pieces together. I did it like this - first, I pinned around the side seams, then I pinned all 4 edges and then I pinned the rest. Best way to make sure that it is sewn together evenly. :)
Sewing along the top edge wasn't easy with the cardboard inside, but you kind of need to do that. Once you manage to do so, the bag is done. :) If you decide to make yourself a bag like this, I have only one thing to say at this point: Congratulations, you have successfully killed many hours of your time and made a nice bag that you will love and pamper for years and protect it from anyone that will be envious and try to steal it!
