Reconsidering My Duffle Dilemma

Five pages of "duffle planning"!

Never say never, right?

A little over a year ago, I posted about my "duffle dilemma". Seems I'm drawn to various DIY duffle bag projects but have reservations about making one. Apart from the need to use up large amounts of fabric, the other reservation was that I did not need one, having a store bought version that met my needs (and has done so for decades).

During one of the few times that I managed to use the duffle last year, I noticed that a seam was starting to come apart and thought to myself, is this fate's way of telling me that I should pursue a duffle bag project?

Probably not, considering it isn't hard to fix the seam that's coming apart.

One jacket hugging the other before the "sacrifice"...!

But late last year I posted/started posting about a bucket list of things that I wanted to do before retiring this blog. The two items of clothing that I was considering tearing up to repurpose into "something else" kept reappearing before my eyes as a duffle bag.

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As 2021 drew to a close, I felt more and more certain about taking on this challenge. And a challenge it's going to be, because while I looked to a couple of YouTube tutorials as my guide, my finished bag is going to be different from either one.

First of all, I need it to be bigger. A duffle that can't hold near the same as my regular bag is not going to get used and will be a waste of my fabric and efforts.

This weekend bag from the YouTube channel of sewingtimes (uploaded August 26, 2019) is very neatly constructed and I intend to follow her technique for putting in the lining, despite the need to hand sew it (!) to the main zipper when attaching it.

image courtesy of sewingtimes (YouTube)...

It is, however, at 18" x 9.5" x 9", a few inches smaller than I'd like. I'm looking for mine to be about 21" long by 11" high by 10" wide, which is approximately the size of my black and purple bag.

image courtesy of Sewing Line (YouTube)...

This other duffle, from the YouTube channel of Sewing Line (called DIY travel bag, uploaded January 18, 2021 with questionable video quality; hence the small picture), features a multitude of pockets and finishes out at about 19.5" x 10" x 7.75".

I know; in essence, neither bag is that far off from the size that I want. But since I have to cobble together the fabric for this project from a couple of garments anyway, I suspect that it won't involve that much extra work doing it in a custom size versus according to one of these patterns.

Having watched several videos for making duffle bags, I have concluded that the process is not that complex. There are only five main "pieces" to put together: two ends, two sides (that wrap around to form the zippered top), and a base. (Of course, the ends and the sides could be made up of several layers when pockets are involved.) The most difficult part is attaching the ends to the body, because at that point, it's essentially fitting a flat piece onto a cylinder and that's always tricky.

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My main challenge for this project will be centered on allocation of fabric. I only have so much of it, so size and number of pockets will be restricted. Not only that, both jackets are fitted, so cutting straight pieces won't be easy.

Speaking of pockets, though...

A ready made pocket ready to be repurposed...

I fully intend to reuse the two front pockets from the long jacket on the sides of the duffle between the straps. Why waste something that's already made?

The long jacket also has a satin lining that I can reuse for any pocket linings.

Speaking of lining, at least I don't have to worry about it: this old bedsheet will yield plenty of fabric.

Bedsheet for lining...

Having established the desired dimensions for this duffle, the next step was to figure out measurements for the main components and then see where they would come from in terms of my two clothing items. This part was not fun. It took me days to complete... partly because it wasn't fun and I couldn't convince myself to spend a continuous amount of time on it. 

To appreciate why this wasn't fun, here's the process. Let's say that from my overall bag dimensions, I calculated that I needed a piece measuring 5.5" x 11". This would then have to have a seam allowance added to it, which is straight forward enough. But if that 5.5" x 11" piece itself needs to be pieced — due to not being able to harvest something that size from the source garment — I'd have to accommodate yet another seam allowance for that piecing. Basically, with every small piece that needed to be sewn together to create a bigger piece, I needed to add inches in a situation where I was already limited in terms of available inches.

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Anyway, after many hours of scrawling in my notebook, I finally got to the point of being able to make a list of the pieces that I needed and where they would come from.

It became obvious while doing this planning and allocation that I would have to use the seam ripper on occasion to access the full width of the material. (I would say that ideally — and it's what I see from other crafters — if you were to harvest fabric from clothing, it would be most efficient just to trim away the existing seams. It's what I did with the sleeves from both garments.)

Sturdy seams!

Anyway, I have to say that these were well made. The seams were certainly not meant to fail on their own; in most cases, they were overlocked, turned and topstitched.

Several days of seam ripping later, I was able to draw the basic pieces onto the back of the fabric, do some actual cutting — yes, the jackets are no longer jackets; I am committed — and then sit back for a well earned breather.

Sleeves were the first to go...

What? Did you think this was going to be fast? Or that with a certain push to keep blogging, I would reveal all in one post??

I think not. (ಠ‿ಠ)

Those of you who are somewhat regular readers here know that I am not on any social media platforms other than blogger, but I would like to draw your attention to a challenge that Bernina is running this month via Instagram. (Apparently this is the third year in a row that they've done this promo, complete with prizes.)

image courtesy of Bernina...

It's about sustainable refashioning, or in their words, "The goal of this sustainable sewing challenge is to motivate and inspire everyone to reuse, repair and restyle clothing and fabrics. In other words, to turn an existing garment or fabric into something REFEBULOUS!"

Not able to participate since I'm not on Instagram, but I thought it such a coincidence of timing that I'm doing this, considering it was my first bucket list item and I didn't think I'd be working on crossing it off so soon.

'Til next...