Friday 5 June 2015

Bionic Gear Bag


 Happy Monday everyone. After much tearing out of hair with changes to my computer and phone making it impossible to post pictures I think I may now have glitches on the run.
So here are the images that I hope will help my Bionic baggers

 I started with a pack of sample fabric from Kisco. They are all slightly wider than the pattern calls for  by about 1/2 an inch but as they were all the same so I went for it. 
I labelled each piece on a piece of masking tape with an arrow for the direction and the letter of the pieces. These are B to F. 
They are all backed with light weight interfacing.
I sewed in a zip between pieces A and B then a zip between B and C repeating to F making sure the fabrics all lined up parallel, even if the zips stuck out a bit. I made sure the head or moveable bit of the zip was either to the right or to the left each time, not some on the right and some on the left. 
Looking at the back of my pieces you may be able to see that all the zip heads are on the left.
I used the width of my zip foot as a seam guide.

Still looking at the back you can see a pocket lining being pinned in, right side of the lining piece face down. The zip becomes sandwiched between the outer and the lining. 
I will sew along the same seam line as before.
Press the seams away from the zip teeth.

Here you can see I have sewn in the other side of the pocket lining in exactly the same way.

I like to top stitch, I think it gives a good finish preventing the fabric ever getting caught up in the zip teeth. I seam a Bernina zip foot width away from the fabric edge and then turn round and seam again but closer to the edge. Repeat from B to F.
You can now concertina your pieces up and imagine what your bag will be like.

Prepare the side pieces ( these are my redrafted pieces with a more gentle curve) with a medium weight interfacing and sew a seam along the straight edges only, not along the curve or the straight bottom edge. I will show you the second change I made to this piece when I see you all.
Turn through, press and top stitch along seamed edges.


Here are all the pieces ready to be assembled. The bag I found was much easier to put together if there was sufficient quilting in the outer to make the piece firm but not rock hard, my second bag had insufficient quilting and when I had assembled it I had tucks so it had to be unpicked.

I made a quilt sandwich from the outer fabric, a layer of batting and a backing of firmer than standard quilting cotton. I simply did cross hatched quilting at 1 inch and found it gave a suitably firm foundation for a successful result.
I think that is enough for now, See you on Saturday
Till next time.
Liz