Travel Duffle Numero Uno

I was over visiting One Shabby Chick and what should I see? ...but ANOTHER awesome bag that I had to make!  It was the Travel Duffle by StudioCherie over at Etsy.  Man, oh man!  What is with me and bags lately?

Anyhoots, I thought about making it with fat quarters and then I remembered "Happy Land," the AMAZING Jennifer Paganelli fat quarters my friends brought me back from Market :)  Aaaaahhh... the heavens parted and angels began to sing! :D

I got right to work and made me yet another bag :)  ...and this bag is HUGE!!  I folded 4 large quilts into the bag for the pictures and still had room for one more!  A small child would fit for sure ;D

I am thinking that I am going to make my boys duffle bags for Christmas   They never have a good bag for sleepovers or travel.  This bag will be PERFECT for them :)

I have a serious crush on zippered pockets ;D

Here is the top zipper.  It's a double sided parka zipper.  You can unzip from either side ;)

I did make a few variations in the pattern but not many.  I changed the handles.  I didn't want the jukie-burlaps stuff so I cut a 130" by 6.5" strip of fabric, lined it with fusible pellon and folded it up so it's four layers thick and it ended up 1.5" wide.  I also did not have long enough zippers for the end pockets so I used shorter ones and just added fabric tab extensions to make them long enough.  I also doubled the pockets.  The original pattern called for one on one side and one on one of the ends.  I felt like more is better when it comes to pockets.

Things I'll do differently next time:  I will line the outer fabric with pellon.  I will use sturdier duck for the lining fabric.   I will make the handles a bit thinner.  I think I will add a little pocket to the interior.

The pattern was really easy to read and even with my pattern dyslexia, I figured it out :)

The bag has a good coat of Scotch Guard for stain protection :)  I hate to get my Jennifer Paganelli dirty!!! ;D

AND, one last word about the fabric I used for the handles.  Don't go looking at it in any stores :)  I'll do a post tomorrow about the handle fabric story :)  It will be blogged HERE. (the magic of computers... they know what will be in the future!)