Pattern testing - Seiri Bag

My first pattern test for bags is for the Seiri Bag by Porcupine Patterns

Why "seiri"? The pattern designer wrote that "The word Seiri is from 整理 in Japanese which translates to organize / put in order, which is the idea behind this bag."

And indeed, what's great about this bag is that there are 3 very very roomy compartments where I can stuff practically anything and everything into. 

I call it my doraemon bag and I've been using it ever since I finished testing it back in July 2019. 

Back then, I was still a stay-at-home mum and that bag was my essential day outing bag with kids. I stuffed it full of diapers and wet wipes, food and water bottles, nursing cover and tissues, my wallet, handphone, keys, umbrella... and it was able to hold everything! AMAZING. (This is the M size btw, there's also L which cld hold a laptop! and S which is petite but still holds ALOT!)

Let me show off some design elements I put into this bag:

The coolest thing about making my own bag is the fact that I am the one deciding everything, from pattern placement to inner pockets. I used a beautiful japanese keshiki design fabric and I loved the selvage design so much I knew I wanted to incorporate it into the bag somehow. Then I realised that using it as part of the zipper top wld be beautiful so that was what I did!

The zippers were actually very expensive jacket zippers that were oh-so-smooth to pull open and close. They were not cheap but I'm glad I used them cos they added a touch of 'posh' to the whole bag.

And I wasn't kidding about using this bag everywhere:

Here's the bag, on a beach!

One way of knowing that a pattern is good is whether the tester makes more. And well... I did make more... 3 more ~~~

Seiri Bag M and S sizes, outer compartment hacked to be non-zippered!

Seiri bag M size thick canvas (not recommended! Birthing was HARD!)

Hope you enjoyed seeing my Seiri Bag creations! And hope u will try making one too! 

Bags and bags galore - some of my old self-drafted works.

I often see sewists who say that they only sew garments cos bags are hard, or they would say they only sew bags cos garments are hard. I suppose it's really because garments and bags require different skill sets...

I tried sewing bags and while I like bag sewing, the interfacing, the precise measurements, the notion buying makes me think... bags are harder than garments! hahaha. That said, if I were to 'teach' a friend to sew, I would rather point them to a bag pattern than a garment one! =p

After sewing quite a few bags, I found that precision really matters in sewing bags, the seam allowances need to be followed strictly, the steps and the birthing. oh man, the birthing can be hard!

I started my bag making journey with a simple self drafted drawstring bag:

Then moved on to more complicated designs (also self drafted):

Then there was these:

   

All self drafted! But I must say, self drafting is difficult! and while it is fun to come up with the exact dimensions we need, the difficulty in imagining the bag in 3D and then breaking it down to 2D pattern pieces meant bag making is slow when u are self drafting.

Thankfully there are wonderful pdf bag patterns out there to use!

Like these:

These are made with a  FREE pattern i found on youtube! There's many free bag patterns on youtube which is great for beginners to start on! 

I realised with making bags is u have to get so many new notions and tools. One good way to save some money is to use stuff from the old bags u may have lying ard. For example, the hello kitty backpack actually reused all the buckles and rectangular rings from another old bag of my eldest that can't be used anymore.

My first time trying pdf patterns...

What really got me realising that pdf patterns are so much faster and easier for beginners like myself was when I "won" a free pdf pattern in a contest.

I can't remember exactly how I won it already, but I think there was a naming contest? I had never tried free pdf patterns prior to winning the Wolf and Tree's Abby's Spin + Twirl Top + Dress so it was a big deal to me then that I won a pattern.

I tried sewing it up almost immediately and this was the 2 dresses I made with PDF patterns:

I was in love! No more "guessing" and figuring out how to draft, all I had to do was print, paste, cut and sew! It was a game changer for sure!

That was possibly the reason why sewing went from just something i 'do for fun' occasionally to something I do whenever I had free time on my hands.

I went on to download many free pdf patterns from various pdf pattern companies- isn't that how most of us start out? Trying new-to-us pattern companies by downloading their free patterns and sewing them up then when we decide that we like the patterns, we start buying their paid ones!

Early works...

The Wolf and the Tree Abby's Sweet V neck

Reagan Raglan by Bella Sunshine Design