New Sewing: My Aeroplane Bag

I sewed something that is not a quilt! I am pretty proud of myself, but have to give some credit to help, or at least moral support, provided by my mom. She is a great sewist and helped me with this pattern. I had long admired the Aeroplane Bag pattern by Sara Lawson (Sew Sweetness), and I bought it several months ago along with fabrics and supplies, but never got the nerve (or time) to  make it up.

The two blue and white fabrics are canvas in prints designed by Sweetwater for Moda. The orange ticking is also canvas that I have had in my stash for ages (who knows why I bought that?). The bag also requires Soft ‘n Stable and two types of Pellon interfacing. These are what give it shape and stiffness.

Here’s the scoop on this pattern: very easy to follow and pretty easy to sew up. I think if I can do this as my first ever large bag project, anybody can do it. The only bags I had ever made were zipper pouches and simple tote bags (I have a cute tote tutorial, Here).

What I love about this bag is it is huge! I did not expect it to be this roomy: large inside space with two zipper pockets. I haven’t tried it yet, but it might be big enough to carry my featherweight sewing machine inside. It will be a great carry on bag for travel, or for carrying sewing supplies to a class.

Something I struggled with was getting the fabrics to come together properly at the ends of the zipper. It’s a bit tricky when you go to sew the body of the bag and lining to get right up to the ends of the zipper seams and I ended up with unsightly openings and raw edges at both ends of my zipper. I solved this by closing up the openings with some invisible stitches by hand. I added the cute little loop at one end of the zipper to cover the area. I also added the loops with D rings on both sides of the bag…I think they are kind of a cute decoration, but also leave the option open for making a longer shoulder strap that could clip to those D rings.

Happy Sewing!

Sharon