Keep Treking…
This week I’ve got a Pedlar Creative special sew for you! It’s a bag pattern I came up with a couple of months ago but I’m only getting a chance to tell you about it now. The idea came about because recently I’ve needed to take a collapsible walking stick with me when I go out. I don’t need to use it all the time but it’s good to have on me if I do. So I thought why not make a nice bag for it to live in whilst it’s not in use? Make it more of an accessory instead of a burden. Say hello to the Walking Pouch.
I admit that I didn’t do any research on whether a walking stick bag pattern already exists. But I haven’t come across a pattern in the past so I decided to draft my own. The good thing is that you can make it exactly as you want. And there were a few features that I wanted this pouch to have. Firstly, the pouch needs to be somewhat water proof. This would allow me to pack the walking stick away even if it’s wet or muddy. I also want it to have a handle so it can be easily grabbed or hung up on a peg. I thought a hook and loop closer would make the walking stick easier to access. And lastly I wanted the pouch to be fairly snug so it would take up less room in my day bag.
I purchased the fabric I used for this project quite some time ago. It’s a laminate fabric made by Cloud 9 called ‘Passing Clouds’. Cloud 9 release a limited number of laminate fabrics at a time so there isn’t a massive choice. But I love most of their fabrics anyway so it’s not hard for me to find one I like. It’s also not something that Spotlight sells so I order it from fabric.com. It’s well worth checking out what they have available.
A few tips to remember when working with laminate fabrics is that you will need to use a larger/stronger needle and higher thread tension. It’s quite a thick fabric. I also highly recommend using a walking foot. And the most important thing to remember is that you only have one chance to sew it correctly. You can’t unpick the stitches because you will see the holes in the fabric!
After a couple of drafts this is the final result. I’m really happy with the outcome! I managed to include all the features that I was after. I’ve used the laminate fabric for both the exterior and lining making it more water proof. I decided to use a leather strap in the final version because I think it adds a little bit of style. It also looks fantastic with the fabric. I ended up taking my Walking Pouch with me to Europe and I found it to be so useful!
Note: I haven’t created a tutorial for this pattern yet. I wasn’t sure how popular the Walking Pouch would be considering it’s got a very specific purpose. But if it is something you would like to see as free tutorial on my website let me know!
