Sew Lux Fabric : Blog: Design Challenge Tutorial: "Wear & Wash" travel bag

Hello Sew Lux readers! I'm Nati and I blog over at Nati's Little Things about my sewing and crating adventures! Today I am very exited to show you my new little creation... the "Wear & Wash" travelling underwear bag. And I am delighted to be doing it as part of the Sew Lux Design Challenge series!

Although the picture is showing some bikinis (sorry was to shy to show undies in the picture!), I have tested the bag on a week away and it was great to fit my underwear and moving it from the "Wear" to the "Wash" pocket as I wore it.

So what do you need? First of all head over to the Sew Lux Fabric shop and order the gorgeous fabric bundle that I curated, including lovely flowers in oranges, red and pink! Then get some batting, two 12 inch (30cm) zips and some lining fabric, a little light weight interfacing and embroidery thread.

Start by making a simple patchwork with 5 of the 6 fabrics in the bundle. I used 4.5 inches squares to make a 3 by 5 patchwork to finish with a 20.5 by 12.5 piece. Then I sandwiched it with the batting and lining and pinned it ready for quilting.

Next quilt it. I did straight line quilting with my walking foot at 1/4 inch from the seams. Once all done, trim the excess of batting and lining fabric and square up. Then you can move up to working on the inside.

The picture above shows how the pieces will be placed. I cut two 4 x 12.5 pieces of white lining (but you could also use any of the prints from the bundle) and one 12 x 12.5 piece of the extra fabric that wasn't used in the patchwork piece.

To attach the zips, place one facing down on top of the bigger piece of fabric along one of the 12.5 inch sides. Pin it in place (you can help setting it in place by using some glue as well) and sew along using a zip foot.

Turn and iron the seam well. Be careful not to use too much heat near the zip teeth. Then sew the lining fabric by placing it right side down on top of the zip and sewing along with your walking foot.

Then sew the other zip following the same steps. You should end up with something like this:

Trim the inside piece to the same size of the outer piece.

With both sides together, sew along all sides of the rectangle leaving just a small opening for turning. Turn inside out and sew along the sides of the piece with a 1/4 inch seam. Finally to create the two pockets sew a line of stitches along the centre of the rectangle.

Then we are going to label the pockets (this step could also be done with the inside piece before sewing the bag). But you need to feel comfortable that you can place it in the right position!

Using the template (free download here) transfer the image to the each pocket. I used a water erasable fabric marker. With little scraps from the fabrics used prepare the thick letter parts for appliqué (I have a handy tutorial here). This step is optional and you could just embroider all around the letters.