Shop and Ride

I’m really depressed by this April winter that has interrupted my spring riding joy. Didn’t mother nature get the memo, winter was to end promptly on March 20th and spring to start March 21st! Anyway, regardless of missing memos I’m sure she will get around to it in the next week or so (fingers crossed here). And I’m going to be riding my bike all over kingdom come in the purest of spring delights. The breeze will be in my hair as I enjoy the excuse of grocery shopping to take a bike ride after class and/or work. Which brings me to the point of today’s (this evening’s/morning’s) pattern. I have a basket on my bike, which can be taken off, but with a lot of pain and suffering on the part of all parties involved, so how to know when the right amount is really too much to ride back with, without pain and suffering. A grocery tote to fit my basket is in order! I say, make your bag out of whatever you please, out of what will make your heart delight while filling it with books, groceries, flowers, or maybe even an abandoned kitten, well that’s just a bad idea, nix the kitten in the basket tote idea, I could just see hitting a bump and… well, I’m not going there… Flowers, flowers are nice in a basket tote. But on the hitting of bumps topic, I really despise outside pockets on a basket tote because well, hit a bump and there goes your keys/cell phone/wallet/kitten. No good. So this little guy has inside pockets… with buttons for keeping things in! And they expand more than just a straight flap through some fancy folding. So here he is, all ready to go for when it’s warm again. In the mean time, totally a knitting/lunch bag for work tomorrow. I love this bag so much that I was thrilled to find it had another use. Edited in the new pictures. It looks like until it gets warmer out the window is the best light in the place. Sorry about the extra delay in getting them up. There aren’t too many projects that I get really super excited about. But after carrying around this bag, I really do love it and recommend it not just for your bike, but just a nice go around too. I think the next one I make will be about an inch wider and an inch longer. That way i can fit folders and what not in there too. Have a good week! See you next time!

Get the updated Shop n’ Ride pattern as a pdf in the Craft Leftovers Shop or on Etsy Read about the pattern recovery project here

Shop ‘n’ Ride Instructions

Materials

1/2 yrd fashion fabric

1/2 yrd decor fabric (or vinyl works too)

2 buttons

Lots of thread and about 3 hours

Directions

Cut all parts of the bag for each fabric type. There should be a total of 4 straps, 4 sides of the bag, 4 pockets, and 2 bag bodies. (see diagram A)

1. Straps — Cut 2– 3” x 12” on a fold, for a total size of 24”x3”. 

2. Sides of bag — Cut 1 — on doubled fabric for a total of two 9”x6” pieces of fabric.

3. Pockets — Cut 1 of each fabric type — on doubled fabric for a total of two (2) 9”x9” pieces of fabric. 

4. Bag Body — Cut 11 1/2” x 12” on fold for a total size of 11 1/2”x24”

Make the Strap

Press 1/2” hem on long edges of strap pieces, straight stitch each seam to hold.

Place wrong sides together of contrasting fabric types, pin, and stitch along the lengths of the straps.

You don’t need to worry about the short sides because they will be sewn in between the liner and the body fabric.

Pocket

Fold and press 1” hem along the top of the pocket fabrics and stitch in place.

Place wrong sides together and stitch along all edges.

Make a button hole 3/4” from the top of the “pocket” and in the center (about 4 1/2” from either side).

Now for the tricky part, creasing the pocket so it goes down to a 6” width with the button hole still in the center. 

So with the liner facing up, measure 6” from one side, fold to create a 3” flap, press. Now fold

the other side in so it meets the crease just made, press that side. Now flip it over, pull the two folds together and press the heck out of it, which creates 2 more folds on the underside. 

Now really quickly run it over the the sewing machine and top stitch across those 4 folds at the bottom (just about 1” in the center of the bottom) to hold all that folding and pressing in place.

Repeat for second pocket.

Liner Body

Side pieces: Fold and press a 1” hem from the top and stitch. Repeat for other side piece.

Take your pocket and pin it to the side piece, right sides facing in the same direction. Stitch along the sides and bottom NOT THE TOP… 

NOTE: Don’t sew your pocket shut, that wouldn’t really be a pocket now

would it? (a Lesson Learned by experience unfortunately). 

Repeat for second pocket/side liner. Sew button onto side liner piece to match up with the button hole on the pocket piece.

Body piece: Fold and press a 1” hem on the top and bottom of the liner body piece (short sides).

Pin the sides to the body starting at the tops of the sides of the side piece, stop at the bottom of the sides and then pin from the center point of the bottom of the side to the corners so that way any gathering of excess fabric will be locked away from sight in the corner seams. 

Sew the bottom, making sure not to catch the fabric of the body of the bag, the sew the sides. Repeat for the other side of the liner/pocket pieces.

Outer Body

Repeat liner steps omitting the pocket parts.

Sew straps to the wrong side of the body so they overlap with the body of the bag about an inch. I just pinned and sewed a little square to really secure it well.

Now all that is left to do is sew the liner into the body of the bag. Make sure the right sides are all facing the way they should be, pin it so the seam will line up at the edge and stitch away. I sewed the longer seams with my machine, but hand stitched the corners and short seam where the pocket/buttons are.

And that is that. One bag for toting groceries and anything else that will fit just perfectly in my basket.

Definitely feel free to play around with the dimensions to fit your basket/needs. Just remember that the pocket is pressed in thirds. 

Also, something that I just realized, if you feel like having your pockets on the outside, you can always just turn the bag inside out because it is one hundred percent reversible!

What fun right?

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Hopefully I will get some outside shots tomorrow or Sunday and post those. Something that looks nice. I was thinking about just waiting until tomorrow to put in pictures so I would have better lighting, but for you night owls that might see this before I get a chance to add pictures, I wanted you to see what the completed bag looks like. Also I’ve decided to start posting on Saturday morning instead of Friday night for three main reasons: 1. photo opertunities aren’t so great past dark, which is usually when i get things finished up. 2. I travel almost every weekend and Friday is the day I do the driving here to there, where as on Saturday I usually have as much time as I need to get things finished until about 2pm. 3. I’ve been trying to write more complicated patterns for at least 2 patterns a month (or at least complicted for me to write). I’m really trying to get better at this. And well, I’m needing more time to write/make the projects and breaking up the making time over Thurs and Friday and then writing and taking pictures Friday night/Saturday morning would be a great boon. So that is that, patterns on Saturday by 2pm. Oh and I’m making lots of headway re-writing past project sheets and turning them into pdf files. I’m think about offering them up on lulu.com as downloads. They will be free, but any donations though the paypal side bar donate button would be greatly appreciated. And, I have good news, kind of. After almost a year of Craft leftover projects I have downsized my various stashes. And in a way, it’s leading to problems and solutions of ever increasing resourceful usages. Which you will see in next week’s pattern. Oh that’s right, I am so working ahead! So some statistics for you all: Starting yarn: two 29 quart rubbermaids, one comforter bag, 4 sheet set bags, various shopping bags…. I’m going to say about 3 Present yarn: one 29 quart rubbermaid, no comforter bag, 2 sheet set bags (but one for an afghan I’m working on with the yarn in there with it and one for a sweater that is on the needles, so no loose there), and no random shopping bags. Starting Fabric: one 50 gallon trunk rubbermaid, 2 comforter bags, 4 garbage bags, random piles everywhere. Present Fabric: one 50 gallon rubbermaid, 1 comforter bag full of scraps, 1 garbage bag of old clothes to use as raw fabric, no random piles. Pretty good right? Now not all of that has been used for craft leftover projects, but the idea of the craftleftover project has spread to all my other projects. I look at what I have before I follow that impulse to buy more. My apartment is slowly getting less cluttered as I use what I have instead of acquiring. In a weird way it even goes into the closet too, I am downsizing my wardrobe. I only wear/keep things that I really delight in wearing. Like these green pants I have one right now. Delightful. It’s amazing how much I want to get rid of when I think in terms of what is important/necessary to keep around. Okay so I’m clearly tired and rambling so I think I’m going to stop things here. Have a good night! Keep thinking creatively! More pictures tomorrow!

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Until Next Time!

Kristin M Roach