I am off on a rather important trip this weekend and of course I need some rather special luggage. I have been admiring all the weekender bags but me bring me I needed something a little different. Add that to the fact that I needed an excuse to buy myself some AMH velveteen with my Christmas money and you have a project set to go!
I used this duffel bag pattern from Studio Cherie, it is a simplicity pattern that I had seen Jeni at In Color Order make, shame I didn't have yards of Heather Ross to use too!
Because I had only brought half yards of velveteen I had some tricky maths and placement to work out to get my fabrics where I wanted them. Essentially the pattern is one really long quilt for the body with two squares for either end. I used a lovely Orla Kiely pillowcase I had been stashing for the lining and handle trim, it was a perfect match!
I must say that the pattern wasn't really clearly written for my liking but common sense prevailed and I worked it out. You do end up with lots of raw edges inside. I finished these with a tight zig-zag stitch. IF I make another I think I would go to the effort of binding them instead.
I added several extra pockets not included in the pattern, my favourite are the elasticated shoe pockets on the inside to keep my shoes away from my clothes.
The bag is VERY roomy, just to prove a point (because stuffing 3 quilts inside seemed boring somehow) my 8 year old daughter offered to help me demonstrate this.....by climbing inside. No children were harmed in the taking of these photos!
Yep, thats her, right inside the bag!
Trying to get back out!
And for scale here she is out of the bag!
All in all I think this is a great bag (although I may just need to get a weekender out of my system some time soon) and I cant wait to use it!
