I haven’t felt like blogging very much, but absolutely must otherwise I’m going t
o get SO far behind… it’s time to get back on the wagon. I’ve been super busy busy BUSY, sewing up Christmas and birthday presents; including this bunch o’ stuff.
Luggage, or “travel sets’. This was my choice for a lot of my pressies for this year. I made three complete sets, plus four extra toiletries bags. Everyone (said they) loved them!
Pattern; the Portside travel set by Grainline Studio. I bought it during their Thanksgiving sale and got going on it immediately… It’s a nice little pattern for three pieces of luggage, a duffle bag, which is quite large, a “dopp kit” which is what we would call here a dilly bag or a toiletries bag, and a “pouch” which is a nice and handy, flat little purse-thing that you could store phone/device chargers, keys, cards, or just any small things that you don’t want getting lost as they knock about in the duffle bag.
Fabrics; all fabrics and bits and bobs are from Spotlight, except for the lining of Craig’s set, which is from Homecraft Textiles. The shells are constructed in thick, strong nylon drill from the upholstery section, intended for use in outdoor cushions and furniture, and all pieces are interfaced with the thickest, iron-on interfacing I could find. It stands up by itself rather nicely, and it should be nice and tough too! I lined everything with thin, waterproof, plastic-coated fabric, so the bags can be wiped clean inside. The interior of a dilly bag should be wipe-cleanable and waterproof in any case so your fabric doesn’t get stained and dirty from makeup/shampoo/toothpaste leakages, and I decided to use the same stuff for everything because I was thinking they all might want to sometimes use the duffle bags as gym bags, or alternately as beach bags. I just wanted all pieces to be both practical and tough.
Tim’s; made first. All grey/black/white, very masculine which at first I thought perfect for a professional young man. I actually made a matching grey/white dilly bag for him to start with, then suddenly felt all that extremely tasteful grey-and-white was all a bit plain-y plain blah blah blah, and decided it desperately needed an injection of FUN somewhere… we’ve been in sore need of fun around here lately… and Tim is naturally a pretty fun-loving kinda of a guy. When I saw this black/white Darth Vader/stormtrooper fabric in Spotlight, well it all just fell into place. I had bought some Star Wars Lego key rings for gifts when we were in Copenhagen last year; and had some leftover, and thought C3PO made a good zip pull for Tim’s bag.
Kelly’s set is all tropical palm print. Also fully lined with the same thin, white plastic waterproof fabric. And may I say… if only Spotlight had had this fabric in when I was planning my raincoat! I would not have resorted to using a shower curtain. But they didn’t. Oh Spotlight. you crazy hit-n-miss, lucky dip of a fabric store, you.
I also made a full three-piece set for Craig, for his birthday… the grey is the same as in Tim’s, and I bought a dirty camel-brown for the contrast, and a dull, air force blue webbing for the trim. I love these sludgy colours together, this one is actually my favourite colour combination out of all the sets… I didn’t like the thought of a white lining for this set, too stark; so went hunting for a “browner” alternative; and found this great, beige plastic at Homecraft Textiles. Actually, Homecraft Textiles had a really great range of waterproof fabrics… I’m seriously contemplating going there to get some raincoat fabric, hmmm.
In addition; I made two more of the Star Wars dilly bags; pretty much identical to Tim’s, except for the zip pulls. One was for Sam, and theother for Cassie’s boyfriend D. Unfortunately I only had one more of the Star Wars key chains, R2D2, which I put on Sam’s dilly bag; I had to promise D that if we ever got to Copenhagen again I would definitely get another key chain to finish his off to perfection!
I also made a pink flamingo dilly bag for my friend P, who LOVES hot pink and wears it a lot, thus the choice of this fabric. It’s funny, I wouldn’t have chosen this otherwise but I kinda fell in love with it while making it, and ended up utterly adoring it. Actually, it’s been pretty hard to part with any and all of these, for real 🙂
Finally, I made a second palm frond dilly bag, for another friend, M. She’s been so kind and sweet and generous to me all year, and I just wanted to make something for her. The only thing I’m super ashamed of is that I ran out of time and only just finished this one on Boxing Day, so it was a little late. Eeeeeeek!
I enjoyed making all of these.. the only difficulties I had was in getting the hardware, I cleaned my local Spotlight out of their entire supply of 25 and 35cm white and beige dress zips, 51cm white “chunky” zips, and also all their swivel clips and D-rings; completely! and had to visit Homecraft Textiles for more. I like the plastic swivel clips a lot; I know metal ones would be more “classy” and sure I could have found some online, but I just wanted everything lightweight and easy care, and I think these plastic ones are far more practical.
Some thoughts about the pattern and its construction… it is a good pattern, it works, fills a niche, all that; but I made a few minor little upgrades/mods/changes to the way I constructed mine, which I thought were an improvement to the outcome too.
As follows…
When sewing the side edges of the duffle bag and the dilly bag; start and stop the seams 1.2cm (1/2″) from the bottom edge… doing this makes it far easier to stitch the bag bottom piece on to each. Trust me, it really really does.
pictured here is the lower corner of a lining bag, but the same tip applies to the shell also
Also; before the stitching the lining bag to the inside of the zip tape: secure the linings to the duffle and dilly bags, between the shell and the lining bags, up the side seams and the four upper corners, as well as the bottom of each duffle bag. This helps further to keep the lining tamed firmly in place inside the bag, and not billow inside of the bag whenever you take things out.
Zips… the bane of our existence, no? Never the right length… for the duffle bag the pattern calls for 53cm zips, the closest I could find here in Perth was 51cm. To cover up the shortfall, I made a little inset bit to slip into the end of the seam covering the bottom of the zip. I think this looks really nice.
Likewise, the pattern calls for 33cm and 23cm zips; here they only come in 30cm and 35cm; and 20cm and 25cm. So for the 33cm; I bought 35cm zips and just cut the bottom ends off; and for the 23cm zips, well Spotlight ran out of the colours I needed and for several of the dilly bag pocketes I had to resort to a 20cm zip instead and made similar inserts to cover the bottom edge in the same way.
I added a little tab to the bottom end of each dilly bag zip, giving you something to grab at that end when you’re zipping it up. It’s just a short piece of the same webbing that I’d used for the duffle shoulder strap, folded in half and stitched in with the bottom of the zip. This helps a lot when you’re closing the bag.
I also lined inside the side pockets of the duffle bag, and also the side pocket of the dilly bag. It’s just neater and nicer, and more complete that way, I think.
To line the dilly bag pocket neatly… after stitching the upper side piece to the upper zip tape, lay the lining piece right side to the wrong side of the lower zip tape as pictured below, and stitch.
Proceed as per the pattern instructions, by topstitching the lower side piece over the lower zip tape
Not a mod, just a self-evident necessity; for the dilly bag I found I had to clip the freakin’ heck out of the top pieces, to get the top to fit in to the curve of the front/sides.
stretched out to the utmost…
Now, it has to be said; the complete absence of metric measurements in the Portside pattern is pretty annoying. When I saw this I was like, really?! I mean, I can forgive that in a pre-70’s vintage pattern… but not in a modern day pdf, sold internationally. It’s not a deal-breaker for me, but still, this is just not good enough. Sure, it’s not hard for us pattern purchasers to convert all the measurements ourselves and jot them directly onto our pattern, that don’t forget, we had to print out ourselves too; but when you’re paying $14 for it… well, I just don’t think you should have to do that.
Now it looks messy…. should NOT have to do this….
… I’ve only just noticed this; that under “gather your supplies” the list includes “sewing machine” ;D
… but I don’t want to end on a down note. Overall I’m pretty happy with my decision to buy and make it, well obviously, since I’ve made so many! Maybe I should … er, make one for me?!
Those are all fantastic and your attention to details makes them so useful. Love the zip pull and the fabric choices.. I agree with the issue about metric notations – they definitely should be there. Sewing thick fabrics like that with lots of corners is definitely work so I bet you were really powering through to get all the gifts done. on another note – I will miss seeing Sienna on the blog – she looked like such a lovely companion through all your photographic adventures.
Happy New Year to you and your family.
You should do one set for you! All of them look so well made and are well personalized, I am sure that everyone loved his bags! Thank you so much for sharing your little changes which are very well thought and surely will help a lot when we would make one, too!
These are so accomplished, I’m in awe!
Who wouldn’t LOOOVE to receive any of these excellent bags?! Truly, these are very special gifts. I love the details you have added and the way you selected the fabrics to suit each personality. WOW. Thanks for the effort it took to put this post together. I hope the holidays help bring you comfort and joy.
Lucky gift recipients! All great sets. And what a sewing marathon for you!
Can I get on your Christmas gift list?? These are wonderful, so much attention paid to how they will be used and yet so beautiful too. I hope you do make a set for yourself (which you can probably do in your sleep by now) because it will probably be fantastic! Happy holidays.
Losing treasured companions is never easy.
The bags are terrific. And I agree wholeheartedly with the non-metric measurements thing. Annoys me no end too. I have several of the Grainline patterns, all marked up as you have done. I cannot think in imperial, only n metric. Sigh.
All the best for 2017.
Losing treasured companions is never easy.
The bags are terrific. And I agree wholeheartedly with the non-metric measurements thing. Annoys me no end too. I have several of the Grainline patterns, all marked up as you have done. I cannot think in imperial, only n metric. Sigh.
All the best for 2017.
Wow, I purchased this pattern quite some time ago but am still yet to make it up. You have inspired me with these fabulous versions. I’ll definitely be making it sooner rather than later. Thanks for the sewing tips.
This was a perfect idea for presents and all look just beautiful. You’ve made many people very happy xx
These are all amazing. Thank you for taking the time to post your mods and the converted measurements. If I do ever make this pattern they will be very helpful.
I’ve never wanted to make a set of bags more than I do now! These are great! I definitely have to save your post so I can refer back to it should I get an opportunity to make these myself. What a fantastic gift idea. No one ever tires of nice travel bags.
All these bags look terrific, would be tremendously useful to any lucky recipient, and are beautifully made. I am completely in love with the stormtrooper bags with robot zippers.
As always you have done a top notch job…..thanks for all the tips Carolyn.
These bags are all so awesome, such great presents! Are you still short of a lego figure for that last zip pull? Let me know if you still need one, I would happily get one and post it to you next time I’m in our local lego store. Hope you and your family had a lovely Christmas xx
OMG ! I love the star wars one !!!! So funny !
Wow! Such nice gifts. Those Star Wars zipper pulls just make the bags.
I’ve enjoyed seeing these pop up on your instagram, so it’s nice to see them all together! The C-3PO zipper pull is still the absolute best. And yes, you should make a luggage set for yourself! You’ll need something for your next trip, too!
My oldest son is a Tim and all I can say is that even at 42, he would do just about anything for one of those Star Wars dilly bag! I am so NOT showing him your blog or the whinging would commence. 🙂
Wonderful job on all the luggage. Imagine your fingers were worked to the bone with all that upholstery fabric.
They’re all great but the star wars bags are incredible, the pattern placement is genius and the zipper-pulls inspired! I adore it when the little details come together like this!
I made a Portside set a couple of years ago for one of my sons for Christmas – he loves it! I did not interface it and I should have. Lesson learned. As you say – all in all a great pattern! Love all your versions!
Thank you Carolyn for your awesome posts and inspiration as always. i am now snuffling through my stash looking for suitable fabrics for duffle bags and mens’ shirts……
Amazing bags and understand why the recipients were so happy with them. Oh the Star Wars bag, now I have the perfect present in mind for next year thank you very much.
These are lovely. I’m sorry to hear you’ve all been a bit down. I think you need to search out some super special fabric and make yourself an amazing (metric) set of you own, ready for your next amazing holiday.
You have done a fantastic job on all these bags! Your pattern matching brings it up to a whole new level!
I’m actually working on a bag for my brother for Christmas, in that Star Wars fabric- haven’t finished yet though.
Saddened to hear of your much loved Sienna’s passing. Hugs and best wishes for the year ahead.
You should absolutely make a set for yourself!! Would be perfect for your beach excursions. Your productivity never ceases to amaze me!! And what is always very apparent…. is that you pay such attention to detail and quality. The recipients of these bags are very lucky indeed!! 🙂
Ugh, I hate it too, when all the measurements are imperial. It’s not like most of the world’s population use them.
That being said, I really really like all those bags. What great presents. And thank you for all those tips. And the inspiration and this post. I enjoyed reading it:)
Hmm, you’re right – I haven’t seen metric measurements on any Grainline patterns, not even for body measurements. Maddening! All your bags look fantastic; I’m in awe of how you managed to do quality AND quantity!
Those look lovely! I esp. like the Star Wars ones.
I made these travel sets for my young kids last summer, but I ended up making the duffels at 80% of the original size, since they are so big! Even at that size they are pretty roomy. I did a similar thing on the bottom corners of mine (stopping 1/2 inch from the edge).
I was going to make a full-size one for myself but, well, got distracted…
you’ve inspired me to do this for XMas pressies next year! What great bags, fabrics, add-ons. Bet they all truly love them.
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I am in complete awe. What a brilliant and gorgeous set of gifts! Fabric selection is superb too. Great inspiration here! I really should try this for this year’s Christmas gift list.