Here is the lesson bag (レッスンバッグ) that I made for my Fireball three months ago. Woah, time flies! In Japan, Lesson Bag is also known as an Ehon-bagu (絵本バッグ) or Tesage Bukuro (手提げ袋) and many other names. Primarily, it is used to carry drawing blocks, art materials, picture books, and other large school supplies.
Okay, here is how I DIY-ed the bag:
Fabric Design & Measurement:
The lesson bag was made up of two parts – an outer bag (A, B, & C) and a lining (D). To form the outer bag, I joined the plain blue A to the patterned B. Then, I continued to sew AB to C. All with a 2-cm seam allowance. I also used an appliqué that I illustrated, and a name label (E), both produced with my home printer… (Click here to learn more).
Preparing the Appliqués
Since a sheet of A4 printable cotton is expensive, I can not afford to waste one. So, before I proceeded with the fabric printing, I printed out my final sketches to test their sizes, and to get an idea of how the appliqués should be arranged on the fabric.
The Scrooge in me managed to squeeze everything I needed for this project onto a sheet of A4 cotton fabric. The layout of the final appliqués was similar to the placement of the sketches above. The name label was sewn on the right (middle portion).
Before I “V” stitched the appliqués with my sewing machine to the lesson bag, I used THIN iron-on interfacing to keep the printed fabric from fraying.
Sew ON!
This is how the finished outer bag looked, after sewing the parts together (i.e., ABC + Appliqué + Tag).
Then, I folded ABC into halves. With the seam allowances pressed wide open, I machine-stitched a 1-cm seam along both sides.
Fortunately, before I continued further, I realized the decoration on the lesson bag was uncompleted. I quickly added chain stitches to the train parts. WHEW! I also added two handles and velcro. I used TWO navy blue cotton webbing tapes for the handles (35 cm each). (See below pictures).
After I stitched up the sides of the lining (D), I inserted the outer bag into the lining bag with their RIGHT SIDES touching.
The measurements for the velcro tab were L6 x W5cm. Note: The length was 12 cm but I folded it into halves. Then, I sewed the sides and turned them back to their right side before sewing on the velcro. The velcro strips were cut accordingly to fit the tab.
I matched the two seams and I pinned them in place. I made sure that the handles and velcro tab were nicely tucked in between the fabric and ran my stitches back and forth a couple of times to secure them.
Then, I machined the top around (2-cm from the edges) but left a 10-cm opening, wide enough to turn the bag RIGHT-SIDE OUT.
Final Touch…
Once the bag was right-side-out, I closed the opening by stitching along the top edge. This will close up the opening as well as further secure the handle and velcro tab.
Oh, my pretty lesson bag, my love! ^_^b
