 Hey guys, how are you? All right, so I got back from a trip recently and I was very inspired by a video I saw before I left on Instagram where an artist had created her own sort of coloring book and she was coloring in it with I think with pencils. I'm not actually sure. I only know that she created the design for the book with indie ink. I don't know how she did it. That's all I know. It inspired me to make a small one for myself and try it on a recent trip I went to to Virginia and I loved it so much. I finished the whole thing and it worked really well. I just used, I created the design ahead and then colored it in while I was gone with highlighter markers which is something I use all the time in my daily artwork and I love them. And I also brought my daily sketchbook which we'll talk about in a different video but it made me think, you know, if I go on another trip like this I really, I really, you know, I forgot because it's been a bit that I don't like traveling on trips with 20 tons of art supplies. I do like to bring some art supplies because it's me but I don't like to have too much. What if I created just a small bag that had the absolute minimum essentials in it that worked for me that I could do either at the hotel or condo or on the plane where things wouldn't go flying if we hit turbulence. Y'all know what I mean if you've traveled anywhere. So the more I thought about it the more I started making notes. It was, I was making notes for projects while I was gone. Anyway so I and then I saw there was something in one of the gift shops we went to where they had something that fit over a notebook that held your reading glasses. I thought that was so clever. So I started making notes and I did make a mock-up yesterday. I didn't put the reading glass thing on there but now that I'm looking at the mock-up I need to cut out a couple more pieces because I'm thinking this is the flap where all the pens are. I'm thinking I need to, sorry it's a pharmacy, I need to put, I want to put a pocket like here that holds the glasses because it's going to be the first thing I'm going to have to take out to do any work because I'm you know 60 and so you know. So if we have something here that holds the glasses it doesn't have to be a very big something because my glasses aren't that big. Then we have the pens and then we have a zipper pocket but I also could leave it as is and just put the glasses in here. It just made me think okay. So other than figuring out the glasses thing this actually works really well even if I don't put the glasses thing in here. So we have the pockets on the outside for all the essential pens and markers. If I wanted to bring a tiny little watercolor pan set I do have some little mini ones. It would actually fit in here and there is a small watercolor journal in here and if I didn't have one I could make one out of some paper and I could put one water brush in here with the pens. That would work great and then I'm able to fit three with a little bit of breathing room small journals in here including a bigger version of the coloring book a small watercolor journal and a writing journal. So now that I'm pretty happy with the mock-up I just need to figure out if I want to put the glasses case on here or not and then we are going to make some make one out of proper fabric. I'm not going to get rid of this one it's actually cute I'll put it in the closet and maybe I'll use it for something at some point maybe I'll give it to a friend I don't know but it's just a mock-up so but I'm going to make one out of proper fabric we're going to do a little bit neater job at it. The copy of my notes and the pattern pieces will be available to my patrons and supporters so if you want a copy of it something besides this tutorial the link that is down in the video description is fairly reasonable and it helps support the free content here on youtube and I really would appreciate it. All right let me think about the eyeglass thing and I'll be back. You're going to need some kind of thickish fabric for the outside I chose this which is a canvas type fabric I had printed a long time ago at Spoonflower and then you're going to need some kind of fabric for the lining. Now if your outer fabric is kind of thin you're going to want to add some interfacing and give it some body especially if you have like a thin quilting cotton for the inside and the outside. I would recommend something a little heavier for the outside denim canvas dot cloth something along those lines and then you're going to need some interfacing thick interfacing for the two outside pen pockets and the flap to give it some body to really uphold the pens securely if you've ever you know been flying and you've had stuff on your tray table during turbulence you don't want things going flying because you might not get them back so yeah I mean you know so this piece is about seven and a half by ten and this is the main body of the purse the pouch then we have two outer pockets a taller one and a shorter one which are about six by one two three four five six seven six by seven six by six and then we have a flap because again turbulence and security you don't want to be walking through the airport or on the plane and have your chic a fine I love some of my older art bags which are open but when I'm traveling I don't like things to I like it to be closed I like things to be secure it's just it's a thing so this one is should be six by one two three four five six seven and a half to here and then you have an extra inch and a half about up here and this is I've marked it where I'm going to sew the two pieces of Velcro and on the original I did sew some stitching lines here so that it folded and rolled a little bit easier because when you have it open and you're working like on the plane you want to be able to roll the lid that tuck back it does elevate this just a little bit which you don't really need it to do but most importantly it just keeps the flap out of the way I kind of like that feature that might not be a thing for you you might not care about that but I kind of like that it does that now on the new on the next next version I'm going to roll it and add an extra piece of Velcro so I can roll it actually tighter and that actually holds it up a little better and I'm going to I'm going to do that so I can roll it so I don't know if I need to sew those stitching lines or not I probably will still do it anyway I also had elastic loops across the front of the pen pouches to start with I didn't like that I didn't find I needed them on the original notes I had to make pen slots I don't think you need to do that either especially if your pockets are stiff enough to really hold your pens in place and or your pens have this little clip thing on there you just clip it in place and it stays just fine so first cut all your pieces out and make sure oh you're going to need a zipper a short one this is about a scene one two three four five six like a seven inch zipper and you're going to need some velcro you're also going to need a few little pieces of fabric like this which are about two inches by like three and a half inches for either end of the zipper um and I think that's it I do think I mean on the original one I was inspired by the eyeglass case but I don't I don't think I'm going to do that if I want to just put my glasses in the pouch they fit loose in here like this but I also just carry them in an eyeglass case and I can I will have both of those in my bag because I I'm old I need these for everything so anyway all right let's get to sewing shall we with this pencil pouch once you've got your pieces of your pattern printed um if you are a patreon patron you should be able to just print them um you have your pieces cut out um we're going to put the bag lining to the side for the minute and we're going to work with the outside bag fabric again if yours is kind of on the thin side put some interfacing on the back of this you could use a sew on or a fusible whatever you're more comfortable with um we're going to put everything on the outside of the bag first like the pencil pockets and velcro and stuff and then start assembling the bag um so the first thing we're going to do is take the two pencil pockets and I am going to put them right sides together and I'm going to sew up the two long seams I'm going to leave the bottom one open then I'm going to trim this just a little bit so that it'll slide right in and is just short enough that I can turn the bottom under and sew it down I'm going to do that to both of these I'll be right back okay I went ahead and did the flap too because we're basically doing the flap the same way um so now I'm going to cut them apart put the glasses on so I can see what I'm doing um right here I'm going to cut this excess stuff off the corner it'll just help you give get a slightly sharper nicer looking corner and do that on both pockets and then on the flap we want to cut some of this excess off right here I used a very short tiny stitch length to give it some more strength you can sew the interfacing in when you assemble these pieces but then you have to go back pull the fabric back and trim away the excess interfacing I think it's a little easier to do it this way personally okay so now I'm going to use my rotary cutter and straight it and we're going to cut a little bit off of each one I do about quarter inch seams so let's turn it right side out you probably won't get it right the first time then go back and trim a little bit just trim a little bit at a time so you get it to fit right if you trim too much then that's a problem use something blunt point of something to turn out your corners in this case I have a big pen in my hand I also use knitting needles sometimes the bigger sizes they work well okay that's pretty good let's see if this fits cut a little more oops that wasn't very straight let's try that again that's better so just fiddle with it until you get it in there push all the way in once you get it in we're going to take this end that's open and we're going to turn it under like so of course you can press it I can't be bothered and I'm going to just clip it get it as smooth as you can finger press it and then once we get all of them done that way okay we're going to take it to the machine and sew them closed like that there we go all right I'm going to do the other ones I'll be back okay so I got our pockets in our flap sewn I also went ahead and attached the velcro where it indicates to attach it on the pattern I marked it um and I will be these are kind of sloppy but uh the pattern for the patrons and supporters will be cleaned up a little bit I mean you know anyway so then you take your bag body piece the outside this is the inside and lay it out flat open it up like this and then we're going to lay out the flap the pocket and one more piece of velcro um now um that's my piece so there will be some um dots well yeah some dots on the pattern piece punch a hole through them and that'll give you an idea of where to put your piece of velcro on the back of the um pouch which is here and that's for my husband's like what is that for that's for rolling up the flap and there'll be an extra piece of velcro on the flap which there isn't on this one and stick it right there so you can lay it down like that um then I when I sewed the pockets on the little pocket I attached this piece of velcro down here be when I sewed it together and then I also added on the one that I'm going to use I added a label and um I've pinned it all together so I took let's see if I can show you so I took this is the front and I've centered the flap and the pocket this way on the front just the front and I'm making sure that they're also like I'm going to sew the flap right here and it needs to be about an inch and a half or two inches from this edge and then have this be about an inch or so from the edge too so you're going to sew down three sides on this pocket through all these layers of fabric the two pockets and the and this back the outside fabric and then on the flap you're going to sew straight across here and then over here I've also pinned on the other piece of velcro and so we're going to sew that on too we're going to do all of that attaching to the outside of the bag before we do anything else next will be the zipper let me get this sewn and I'll be back so before I go any further I went ahead and made some notes on my pattern piece so can I remember what I did and for the patrons and supporters anyway now we'll tuck this over here because I don't need it anymore all right so once you do this part you should have a piece that looks like this so we've got our velcro for the back of the bag here we've got our flap and pockets I did as you see I did I have these leather tags that I heat embossed designs into freehand so I put one of the leaf ones here and a tag and then we've got these two pockets so now it's zip time okay so I have a short seven-inch zipper here and what we're going to do is I've got some scraps of fabric and they're about two inches by three and a half ish so you're going to need four of these and we are going to put them right sides together with the zipper in between and we're going to sew across here a couple times then we're going to pull them back and top stitch I'm going to do that on both ends of the zipper I'll be right back okay believe it or not we're almost done all right so we are going to take the zipper and I'm going to fold it in half like this I'm going to mark the center with a couple of pins like that okay I'm going to do the same thing to the back body okay now we're going to take the right side of the zipper which is the part with the pull the pull on it we're going to march up march up match up our center pin on the zipper with our center pin on the bag and pin that down and then go all the way to this end and then all the way to that end and we're going to sew it down about halfway to the teeth don't get too close to the teeth you won't have you'll be able to you'll have trouble getting the zipper open all right we're going to do that on one side then we're going to do take the zipper pull it up like this and do the other side so that we have something that looks like that all right I'll be back now what I didn't do with the first one which made for ugly zipper corners I mean it's fine I you know it doesn't bug me too much but was trim so after you do this trim some of this excess zipper tab stuff off you don't need so much I also when I do pockets like this never remember when you're sewing doing the final seam if you should push push the zipper towards the outside fabric or the lining I think you should push it towards the lining I pushed it the other way on the first on the maca bag and it came again it came out ugly so we'll do it the other way on this one we'll see if it works I don't know all right now lining lining lining okay so for the lining we are going to take one side of the zipper and we are going to place the lining over so it looks like this and we're going to sew across and that way when we sew it and we flip it back this way all those seams are hidden okay so we're going to do that on both sides we see if I can like flip it and show you so we'll do it this side and then when you sew it on the inside of the bag the seam will be will not show it'll be like that and if I can get my machine in there we'll topstitch it but I don't know about that I didn't do it the first time and it doesn't bug me but I mean if it bugs you I have to get the lining in you can go over here and you can try and topstitch that before you do the sides I don't know all right let me get the lining on hey guys all right once you get the lining on you'll end up with something looks like this looks a little crazy I know all right so the next thing we're going to do is close up the side seams now when you're doing this you want to leave about a three or four inch opening on one of the lining sides so we're going to sew you're not going to worry about these cutouts right now we're going to sew from end to end and on one side we're going to sew from here to here and stop and then sew an inch or so at the bottom and leave that opening because that's how you're going to turn the bag right side out okay all right let me do that okay now you want to take those little cutouts we're going to flatten them like that and sew across here that'll give your bag a little bit of a flat bottom this is the most challenging part remember that hole we left we have to pull the whole bag through that hole so just take your time do it carefully don't be in a rush which is funny because I'm always in a rush and it's going to be fiddly as you can see and just take your time and turn it right side out before you sew up the inside and I'll show you how to do that make sure all your corners are pushed out you saw me trim these and this little zipper tab push it towards the lining when you're sewing the side seam just checking to make sure I got it all everything looks okay and it does cool all right so it all looks good super good I do kind of wish I kind of want to top stitch this am I going to be able to get in there though that is the question maybe maybe okay let's sew the lining closed first so just pull the lining out as far as you can you can sort of finger press the raw edges to the inside if you want to pin it or clip it you can happen to have a couple clips so we'll use them the bigger you leave your opening the easier it will be to turn the bag but but but but but harder it'll be to turn closed now you can also cut your lining instead of in one piece cut it in two pieces and leave an extra put an extra seam allowance along the bottom like maybe a half an inch and then leave the majority of that open and then sew that closed that might work better for you trying to get this flat as possible let's get this sewn maybe someday okay so you could leave it at that I do kind of want to see if I can top stitch this zipper so for that I'm going to take the free arm off of my machine let's see if I can do this I have no idea prototype bag new bag all right so let me load it up now the pocket doesn't fit a lot of big journals but it can fit some little ones and honestly when I'm traveling I need to not bring big journals anyway but if you want to carry use this for a bigger journal you want to number one probably use a longer zipper but also the obvious is lengthen the bag a little bit and to accommodate the journal size that you want so I'm okay with having to sort of wiggle them out that's okay with me and the other one was like that too okay pens if you have a couple of extra small things you want to bring maybe it's a water brush maybe all your pens are right here but you want to put the water brush inside maybe it's an extra pen that you don't normally use I have a couple of souvenir pens I think for now I want to keep in here and they just fit in like that and there we go I mean and that fits easily in my backpack or a small handbag or whatever and this is much smaller and lighter weight to carry than other things I've carried before so travel journaling bag you also could I should say use some of the front pockets for pens but you could put little pouches of ephemera and the other ones if you are doing collage and then make sure when you put your journals inside that you leave room for like a glue stick but yeah I really Virginia inspired me to make this bag and I will make the pattern available as soon as I can to my patrons and supporters it will also be in my Etsy shop for sale if you want to buy it but become a patron or supporter because I often come up with things like this and I share them with them I share travel things with them and in real time we have a private Facebook chat and we have a private YouTube channel so think about joining the patron my patreon sorry my brain is everywhere at the same time anyway because I'm this is this is cute this is cute anyway all right that's it for today think about making yourself a bag have some fun take your art with you I use it for therapy especially when I'm stressed and traveling I enjoy but it also stresses me out so anyway that's it for right now go out and have a great day like share and subscribe do something nice for yourself because you deserve it maybe make a bag all right that's it for now see you in the next video