Jack Tar bag

I'm happy to tell you that Jess (a.k.a. howaboutorange) has a new line of fabrics that has just been released! Once again, she created the designs for Cloud9 Fabrics, and here they are, called Business Class:

(Photos by Cloud9)

This time the fabric is a luscious, drapey rayon! So elegant! I love the description: 'Business Class is for ladies. Ladies who set up spreadsheets and change diapers and pay the rent. Ladies who like pretty blouses and suing for breach of contract. Ladies who are "fast, thorough, and sharp as a tack, who are touring the facilities and picking up slack," in the immortal words of Cake. Here's to women who are getting things done.'

Sooo... I'm a bag maker. I can sew garments and have made many, but I'm not so good at making them to fit someone who is not here to try them on. However, Jess has a good friend who can do just that - Rachel Epperson, owner of Oak Fabrics of Chicago. She offered to sew garments for Cloud9 as samples... and sew she did! She is one amazing lady, and you can see all of the MANY fabulous garments she made (modeled by Jess and another of her friends) if you check out the Instagram and/or Facebook accounts of Oak Fabrics, Cloud9 Fabrics and/or How About Orange. (I'll let you do your own searching... they're easy to find.)

So what does a bag lady do with rayon fabric? Actually, Rachel asked me if I wanted to help her out and make something for her. I gladly said yes, because I love being involved in the fabric release process. Here's what arrived in my mail.

The top half of the photo is, of course, the Senator print of the Business Class line. But check out that bottom half - it's oilskin! Interesting bag combination? YES! So I put them together and made a bag. Of course Rachel sent a pattern with the fabric, along with hardware and everything else I needed to make it. There was a real leather strap (which was longer than needed, so I had to research how to cut it properly... a rotary cutter did the job very nicely [do NOT use a scissors!]) and exactly 4 rivets. I've installed rivets before, but usually do a practice one, because sometimes I've messed up. Yup. But this time I couldn't afford to mess up because there were no extras and I didn't have that size in my stash. SUCCESS!! (Whew!)

Here's the completed bag, a Jack Tar bag, from the pattern by Merchant and Mills. It's BIG!

The pattern was great. It had short but easy-to-understand directions and illustrations. I'd never sewn on oilskin before, but it all went very smoothly, and I'd gladly use it again. Here's the outside; it has the leather shoulder strap plus oilskin handles.

The rayon (backed with a layer of fusible woven interfacing for stability) was used for the lining. There was also a magnetic snap for a closure.

It made a lovely lining, and there is a divided slip pocket inside also.

The oilskin is pretty cool. Of course there is no ironing to it, but it's supposed to have that wrinkled look. Finger pressing the seams worked nicely. I used a topstitching needle, and I had no trouble at all sewing through the layers.

As I said, it's a BIG bag! It has room for tons of stuff!

I recommend the pattern if you're in need of a bag that size. It was really easy to sew. Rachel has the pattern and all the supplies available in her Etsy shop or of course in her Oak Fabrics store in Chicago. She also carries the new Business Class rayon, of course, or you can go to Cloud9's "Where to Buy" section to find other retailers.