Mini Sew Together Bag – OccasionalPiece

Sound the trumpets! Today is finally the day that I’m releasing my pattern for the Mini Double-Pocket Bag. I know the title at the top of the post is long, but hang on to your handbags, because so is this post.

Mini Double-pocket Zipper Bag, number 236 on Quilt Index

You all know that BluPrint/Craftsy has bit the dust, possibly due to the coronavirus, but possibly not. I used to have a slew of patterns on there, but after the purge of Craftsy to BluPrint, they allowed me one. And that one was my more simple attempt to get the dimensions out there for the mini version.

But it’s not been satisfactory to me. I felt I should give you better.
Short version of this story: It’s Time.

It’s time to have a stand-alone pattern for my Mini Double-Pocket Bag, that also has instructions, so you can take this pattern to your retreat that is in the mountains or at the sea shore and STILL be able to make the bag, without relying on the Internet.

This version has two pockets. The yellow Mini Double-Pocket Bag I made has two zippers, that open from opposite ends. The other two bags (red and blue) slide open from the same side. I like to change things up.

I spent more than a few hours making over 64 (full-color!) illustrations to go in this pattern. I didn’t want any of you to get lost along the way. I used three pieces of software: Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher. I recommend them verrrry highly if you are someone who wishes they’d majored in Graphic Design in college and more than once in the last week has mentioned this to their husband. (Yes, you’ll have a learning curve, but there are lots of resources to help you online.) This pattern is ALL MY OWN WORK.

To proof these bags, I sent patterns to Cindy of LiveAColorful Life, and Carol @carolgillen and they both suggested some minor changes; both were happy with the multiple and detailed illustrations. Thank you to both of those amazing ladies!

This is what the pattern looks like over at my pattern shop on PayHip.

I tweaked some measurements, dove deep into the making so I could understand other components, and added a few twists of my own.

And why do we all like to make this thing? I don’t know why, but there are over 500 posts of people making it, even with that old dishrag of a pattern that used to be up on Craftsy.

I think it’s because we can take three of our Anna Maria Horner fabrics, back it and bind it with another two AMH fabrics, and have something to carry our Hexies and sewing and binding and stitching stuff in. And we still have more AMH fabrics left.

Or we can gather up a batch of red and white and blue fabrics, and whip up a cute hostess gift for that non-existent 4th of July party we are going to. (Okay, better keep it for yourself.)

I, myself, have over five different small sewing bags, each geared to the type of project I’m working on. My friend Judy packs her jewelry in it when she used to head out on her international trips. I suppose you could use to when you head to the grocery store, to organize your coupons. I’m sure you’ll think of ways to use your Mini Double-Pocket Bag, and if you need the pattern (of course you do), here’s a little treat:

Until July 14th, the pattern will be sold at a discount of 20% with the code: minidoublepocketbag20 — that’s all lower case, with the number 20 at the end. When you check out over on PayHip, you’ll see a place to put your code.

Welcome the newest addition to our pattern world!

Happy Sewing!

Woohoo!! It’s a Mini Sew Together Bag!
A Mini Sew Together Bag has two pockets and is smaller than its big sister.

(Two Regular Sew Together Bags and Four Mini Sew Together Bags)

While I love my regular-sized bag, I really wanted one that was just a bit smaller.

UPDATE: I have re-written the pattern completely into a stand-alone pattern. It can be found on PayHip.

Here are some photos of the bag in process…and completed! For more information, refer to this post.

I was able to crank out four Minis in about a day and half; I think it went so quickly because I had already made a couple of the bigger bags. Before I wrote the new pattern, I had to refer to The Quilt Barn’s Tutorial when I became stuck.

Now everything is included in the pattern.

For the tab ends, I didn’t necessarily slide them all the way to the end of the zipper before I sewed them on (and by the way, refer to the pattern for an easier way to make them, rather than the tutorial). Instead I played with the tab ends a bit, sliding them up and down the zipper, seeing how big of a “handle” I wanted. Most of the time I placed the zipper about halfway into the tab end.

And that shiny thing in front? For adjunct teachers who use white board markers, you know what a mess the eraser makes in your tote bags. The Community College administrators where I teach give us the white board markers free at the beginning of the school year, but we buy our own erasers. If you leave yours in the classroom, you can kiss it goodbye, so we carry the erasers (and markers) back and forth to class.

To keep my sew together bag clean, I made a clear vinyl pouch, sewing a self-binding fabric strip around the top to hold my eraser. The dimensions were 7″ by 6 1/2″ of clear vinyl; sew two folded strips along the 7″ sides, then with WST, sew the side seams. Yes, I did a tiny “boxing in” of the bottom corner to accommodate the eraser.

Mini Sew Together, fully loaded for school. But this would also be great stacked with hexies, or other smaller hand-sewing projects. Because the Mini is a smaller size, it will fit into…smaller places!

I also made a matching tote bag to go with this for a gift, as California will be phasing out our plastic grocery bags. I used my Grocery Bag Tutorial, found *here.* The usual request applies: don’t embed the pattern on your blog, refer your friends back to OPQuilt.com to download their own. And if you Pin anything from this post, please use the correct post address. These little Minis are fun to make and fun to use, and sew up quickly for a cute and fun Christmas gift!

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In case you are looking for the Circle EPP Quilt-A-Long, because I gave you two renditions of the block in November, we are taking a vacation in December. Merry Christmas all you EPP-ers and we’ll see you in January.

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I get my zippers from ZipperStop in NYC. There are other places to locate good quality, inexpensive zippers mentioned on other quilty blogs and in the comments (so check them out), but I can highly recommend Zipperstop, having placed several orders from them. The zippers arrive quickly, and in the color range I like and I like the prices.

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