Hi!
I’ve been into sewing lately and I recently made two different boxy zipper bags from a tutorial on YouTube. The video was from Tammy Handmade.
They both turned out great! I originally wanted to make one so I could use it as a toiletry bag. I made the smaller one first and it turned out really good, I was kind of surprised at how cool it looked! But it ended up being smaller than I needed, so I made the larger, yellow one afterward. It’s bigger and I added a pocket on one side, I’m hoping to add one to the other side soon. It’s a little more flimsy than the blue bag, because of the size I think. But the pocket added some stability, especially since I added interfacing between the pocket layers, so I’m hoping the second pocket will help too.
I’ll share a bit more about them below!
What’s something you liked about it (and why)? I like how they turned out! I love the look of the boxy shape with the seams that are enclosed and the little zipper tabs, it’s just so clean and neat looking. It also looks professional which I like, I kinda can’t believe that I made it!
I also like how easy it was. The tutorial was great, it was easy to follow along with and the actual pattern was very simple. Each step is quick and straightforward. The only hard part is the alignment and sewing of the corners which I talk about below, and the tutorial wasn’t great for that part, but now that I’ve done it several times it’s much easier. Considering how easy the bag was, that’s also part of why the professional look of it is so satisfying.
What’s something you disliked about it (and why)? I had a hard time at the point of the project where you need to align and sew the main fabric and lining fabric together in the corners, which is part of what makes the cool box shape. The tutorial was great the whole time except for that part, so I disliked that too. The first time I did the project I had a hard time figuring out what she was doing. She could have explained and showed it better, but I get that it’s a hard step to do that for. Her lining wasn’t interfaced and mine was, but I figured out that I could cut the interfacing away on both fabrics which made it easier. Both times it was challenging and ended up wonky which you can specifically tell on a few of the corners of the yellow bag. I could have tried better, and now seeing how it looks finished I know why you’d want to line it up nicer, so I’ll try better next time. But yeah, I disliked how that part was quite challenging and very fiddly and also how the tutorial didn’t do a very good job for that part.
What was your biggest takeaway or lesson? Probably the practical skills and experience that I gained from making these bags. I’ve made other bags but not in a long time and nothing 3D like this. I learned how to shorten a zipper, which is a big takeaway! I used sew-on interfacing for the first time (I meant to get fusible, iron-on interfacing at first but it was actually the sew-on kind and it ended up being fine. I was then unsure about the fusible kind so I just stuck with what I knew for the second bag). I also figured out, with the help of some videos and ChatGPT, how to make a zipper window and how to sew a zipper pocket to the outside of the bag, without cutting into the inside. I bet these skills will be helpful in my future projects.
What is something you’re curious to learn more about as a result of this experience? I’m curious to look at other tutorials from Tammy Handmade. Overall, it was super easy to follow along with and I like her style. Her tiered skirt tutorial was one of the main videos I used for the two skirts I made. Around that time I looked on her channel in the context of clothes tutorials. A lot of her clothes videos were not my favorite, but I’m interested to see if she has more videos on littler projects like this because, again, it was a great tutorial!
Below are some pictures of the bags. You can see that I used a different lining fabric on the inside of both of them. And on the inside of the pocket on the yellow one I used the blue flower fabric.
Thank you for reading!
God bless!
Lucy
