Monday, November 25, 2013

Two Zip Hipster

I started this Two Zip Hipster while on retreat at Loon Lake, and was able to finally finish it today (hooray for flex days!)

2 zip front

Erin Erickson of Dog Under My Desk's pattern is extremely well-written with tons and tons of nice clear photos for visual makers like me. I followed her instructions exactly as written with the exception of using three different fabrics for the bag's exterior.

2 zip Collage

The cars and bikes are Echino, and the viewmasters are an older Melody Miller design for Kokka. All of the exterior fabrics are heavier cotton-linen blends and were marvelous to work with. The interior is Alexander Henry's Heath in a nice muted grey:

2 zip inner

It's very cute and a really nice size that's perfect for a wallet, phone, keys and maybe a notebook.

2 zip sitting

New techniques I learned: using slider hardware to make an adustable strap and inserting a recessed zipper.

Things I'll do differently next time I make this pattern: reverse the placement of the strap so that the slider lands on my back and not my front when it's slung on my right hip; use the same fabric for the front and back or at least choose ones that don't contrast so much; install an interior zip pocket.

2 zip front close


Overall, though, I'm really happy I made this bag, and I feel like I built some skills doing it. I also tested the limits of my sewing machine: top-stitching through multiple layers of bag fabric, plus interfacing, plus many layers of strap was slightly too much for ol' Jojo. But only slightly. All I had to do was go back to a single straight stitch from the triple stitch I'd been using and it was smooth sailing.

7 comments:

  1. nice bag!! looks like a really handy size too.

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  2. Looks great - nice size for just going out when you don't want to haul around too much stuff.

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  3. Love your bag. Fun colours! Thanks also for the tips and comments. It is always nice to know what works and what you would change.

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  4. It's lovely, you picked the best fabrics for it.

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  5. Love the fabrics you used - it looks fabulous!

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  6. Mustard and plum. Doesn't get any better ; ) Looks fab

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  7. Fabulous, Felicity! What a great way to show off all of those amazing Japanese prints.

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