Travel bag? Tote? Purse?......

I am traveling for work this month and found that I needed a travel bag that would work with any outfit and contain my 'stuff' and a laptop.  DD1 had a nice tote she had gotten from Target a few seasons ago.  Good size bag, pleather and herringbone fabric.   I decided to use it for inspiration!

DD1's bag from Target.  It has an extra long zipper so that it can open very wide.

So I chose a quilted pleather from JoAnns for the lower portion and I could not find a herringbone fabric that would work, so I went with a black and white quilting fabric for the upper portion.  The quilting fabric was much too thin, so I added batting and quilted the fabric (below you can see the quilting on the inside of the upper portion.)  With the busy-ness of the lined fabric, you can't really see the quilting lines from the outside, but it gives it structure and some depth to the fabric.  The blue part at the bottom is a plastic grid I used to give the bottom of the bag structure.

 

I didn't have a pattern to go by, only the pictures of my daughter's bag, so I just made it up as I was going along!  Below is the zipper portion that will be attached to the lining as the bags closure.  I left the zipper extra long, to allow the bag to open up wide.

 

Here is the lining fabric (party on the inside!) with the zipper attached.

 The right side (will be the outside) of the zipper.

 

I added a pocket with a zipper closure to the lining, as well as a pocket for my phone.

On the other side of the lining, I added various size pockets.

 

The two tall thin pieces below, are the side pieces of the lining.  One has an elasticized pocket for my water bottle, the other side has two pockets for my glasses.

 

Here is the lining and outer sewn together after pulling the purse through a gap in the lining. 

 

Push the lining down in the bad and top stitch around the top and whallah!!  I have a new travel bag!! (Only took me 8 hours!!  but I enjoyed every minute!)

 Extended zipper is awesome, bag opens very wide.   Here is the bag inside out. You can see the various pockets, and my water bottle on the end!

Inside out,  Eye glasses on the other end, and more pockets on the other side.

I love my new bag!!   Now.......  if I just had enough time to make a new coat before I head back East.....

Stay Happy

Keep Sewing

and if you can't sew

swimming in the bathtub can be fun!