Made by a Fabricista: Range Backpack

Hi there sewing friends! This post is an exciting one for me because it marks my return to sewing! Ha! My sewing machine has been packed up and stored away in the corner of my bedroom since the beginning of July!

You see, my family decided to renovate our kitchen, and our kitchen used to have a teen-incy little room off to the side of it that held all of my crafting and sewing supplies. Well, we knocked that wall down back in July and have been working non stop (literally every free minute we've had) for the past three months on the kitchen renovation!

You'd think we were done with the renovation (it has been three months!), but we're not even close. We've been doing 90% of the work ourselves, and honestly, if we could pause the rest of our lives (like school, church, sports, work) I'm sure we could finish quickly, but life is still moving forward, so our renovation is slowly crawling along!

I know, I know, you came here to hear about sewing, and not about my renovation drama, so let's dive into some sewing details! This is the range backpack pattern (by Anna Graham of Noodlehead). I have loved the look of this bag ever since pics started popping up on instagram!

I looked around the fabric mart website for some sturdy, heavy duty fabric and landed on this beautiful wool fabric. I wasn't sure if it would work for a bag, but I've seen several other wool bags online, so I hit order and crossed my fingers that it would work for this pattern!

When it arrived in the mail I knew it was perfect! This wool is backed by a solid black polyester fabric, making it super sturdy and the perfect weight to sew a bag! I used the wool for the majority of the range backpack, but used the solid black polyester side of the fabric for the contrast bottom! I love how the two fabrics look together!

The range backpack pattern was really easy to follow! Since the wool fabric was so thick, and at many times I was sewing through several layers of fabric, I used a jeans needle in my sewing machine, which worked perfectly.

Sewing this bag was a little interesting since most of my sewing supplies are still packed away. When I found some free time to sew, I couldn't find where I had packed away any pins or clips to hold the fabric together. I ended up using clothes pins (during a renovation, you do what you can do)! Because of my funny improvising, I see little imperfections that bug me (like the wonky lines by the zipper) but thankfully my sweet girl doesn't notice any of those mistakes and loves her new bag!

The range backpack pattern calls for a lining, but since this fabric is backed, I omitted the lining and instead just turned down the top 1.5 inches and topstitched that fold in place. The only other change I made was to add that swivel clip instead of the fabric closure as called for in the pattern. This honestly wasn't the plan, but the wool fabric was so thick, I couldn't thread it through the d rings, so had to come up with another plan. I love how the clip looks and am so glad that's what I ended up using!

Here's a quick recap of the details:

Fabric: Double Faced Wool Coating
Pattern: Range Backpack
Modifications: omitted lining, clip closure instead of fabric closure

One last thing. The listing for this wool coating says it is a warm gray. I agree, bit I would add that it has a little bit (very slight) pink tone with the gray, that I absolutely love! I was pleasantly surprised to see the color of the fabric and it turned out to be even prettier in person than pictured on the computer! Okay, off to go work on the kitchen renovation some more...

Week 4: Jeansmaking- What They Made

This is it, the final round! And we certainly did not go easy on our three remaining contestants this time. This round they had to make their own pair of well fitting jeans. I think they all did an absolutely outstanding job! Take a look what these ladies accomplished & be sure to vote for your favorite! (Link at bottom of post.) And, don't forget to show us your me-made jeans on Facebook or Instagram. Details at the bottom of this post. Danesha from Classyfied Life So first I must say that this entire challenge has been just that...a challenge! Two weeks ago there was hurricane Irma and I was blessed enough to not lose power and then I went out into the aftermath to capture some photos of my submission. Then two weeks ago I had a big trip planned so I had to do EVERYTHING in two days . Then the BIGGEST challenge of all...THIS week! I got the challenge and I was super excited to have an extra few days and then before I could even get started I ended up in the eme

Made By A Fabricista: A great tee shirt pattern – or three!

Hi fellow sewists! It’s Andrea @happy.things.here and I’m here today to talk tee shirts! I love a good tee pattern…or two…or four. Despite having more than enough of them in my pattern collection, I’m always up for trying a new one. And I also have my favorites and tried and trues (TNTs). I love the versatility of a good tee pattern – dress it up with fancy fabrics to make a work wardrobe piece, use a high quality solid to add some basics, or anything in between. Today I’m sharing three patterns I’ve used multiple times and with many different kinds of fabrics - all a little different and all great beginner patterns too. First up is the newest addition to my pattern collection – the Upland tee and crop top by Rivet Patterns. They are a newer designer who I recently discovered when this tee pattern caught my eye. I love that it has multiple bodice options including a classic design tee and also a crop version with different separate and uniquely shaped bodice pieces. I first made the

Made By A Fabricista: Dreamy Florals | A DIY Dress Inspired by Son de Flor's Spring Collection

Hi everyone! When I saw this floral print linen/cotton blend make it’s way onto the to-be-described table I knew I had to make a dress from it. I’d been staring dreamily at all the dresses from the brand Son de Flor who had just put out their spring collection and thought, maybe I can throw together something inspired by them! I grabbed three yards of that floral shirting and a yard of SWC5682w to line the bodice with. I used Simplicity’s S8946 for its simple bodice block. This pattern has a gathered rectangle for the skirt, but I’m a sucker for a circle skirt so that’s where I decided to start. I folded the fabric twice and cut out the longest circle the fabric would allow. Then got to work on the bodice, sewing up the darts and attaching everything. Now, I don’t love installing zippers. I ha d a lot of trouble getting them to sit right, and no matter how much mental gymnastics I do when first pinning one side is always put in the wrong way. So while I did have to unpick and

Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Search This Blog