It's not a secret that I love pattern testing and especially for Sara from Sew Sweetness, who appears to be the nicest person on the face of the earth. She also makes great bag patterns (winning combination!).
This time it was a backpack - the Edelweiss. I was interested to find out she had never designed one before because she couldn't "see" one she would like (I think that's what she said). I think it was worth the wait and the musing - because this pattern is lovely.
I particularly like the way the flap comes over on this bag, plus it was great to use some more "hardware" and do the adjustable strap thing too. I believe you can make this as a cross body bag, but I think it probably works best as a rucksack.
I made mine out of things I had in the cupboard already (score!) - with a bicycle theme:
I had intended this to be for my friend Danica (who rides a lot!) but my daughter Isabelle has all but claimed it, as she fell in love with it while I was making it.
I don't have too much to say on this pattern. Again, the instructions were clear and well thought out, and the construction was pretty straightforward. I always find with bag patterns that there seems to be endless cutting (and this was no exception), but I guess you can't have pockets without cutting them out :) I also sped the process up by fusing a whole piece of fabric to the interfacing and then cutting the pattern shapes out of that, rather than cutting them separately and then fusing them together. Once the cutting is done the sewing really doesn't take long at all.
I love the process for putting in those bordered, exposed zippers, the super neat bound seams inside (sorry - forgot to take a snap of that!), and as I mention above I think the adjustable straps make it look super professional. I added the piping as a tweak, but then of course cocked up the execution of the front pocket flaps - so any wonkiness in those is mine and not Sara's!
Another great bag pattern which was a pleasure to sew :)
C x
p.s. Have you seen Sara is now designing fabric? Great stuff - and there will be KNITS! Heaven :)
p.p.s. I did learn how hard it is to spell Edelweiss during this pattern test, I always try and insert an extra i somewhere...
This time it was a backpack - the Edelweiss. I was interested to find out she had never designed one before because she couldn't "see" one she would like (I think that's what she said). I think it was worth the wait and the musing - because this pattern is lovely.
Image from Sewsweetnesspatterns.com |
I made mine out of things I had in the cupboard already (score!) - with a bicycle theme:
I had intended this to be for my friend Danica (who rides a lot!) but my daughter Isabelle has all but claimed it, as she fell in love with it while I was making it.
I don't have too much to say on this pattern. Again, the instructions were clear and well thought out, and the construction was pretty straightforward. I always find with bag patterns that there seems to be endless cutting (and this was no exception), but I guess you can't have pockets without cutting them out :) I also sped the process up by fusing a whole piece of fabric to the interfacing and then cutting the pattern shapes out of that, rather than cutting them separately and then fusing them together. Once the cutting is done the sewing really doesn't take long at all.
I love the process for putting in those bordered, exposed zippers, the super neat bound seams inside (sorry - forgot to take a snap of that!), and as I mention above I think the adjustable straps make it look super professional. I added the piping as a tweak, but then of course cocked up the execution of the front pocket flaps - so any wonkiness in those is mine and not Sara's!
Another great bag pattern which was a pleasure to sew :)
C x
p.s. Have you seen Sara is now designing fabric? Great stuff - and there will be KNITS! Heaven :)
p.p.s. I did learn how hard it is to spell Edelweiss during this pattern test, I always try and insert an extra i somewhere...
Not surprised this bag was claimed by your little Miss - its adorable. Damn, another thing to add to my list - why oh why are there never enough hours in the day.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty great pattern - very straightforward to sew but fabby results. I think lots of people try and steer clear of adding bag "hardware" to their patterns in case it scares novice users, but the end result is so much better and it's fun finding out what all the clippy thingos are!
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