During the past week, this bag has carried my laptop through the airport, been my purse to a wedding, and toted stuff to the beach. That’s a lot of jobs for one bag. I’m happy to say it performed all of its required duties wonderfully. And it looked pretty darn cute, too. Here’s how I planned the design:
Size
Most importantly, this bag needed to be large enough to fit my laptop, but small enough to meet airline carry-on luggage guidelines. I checked the FAA and NWA website and both set my limit at 45 linear inches. Mine turned out to be 13.5 x 16.5 x 4 inches, or 34 linear inches. Part of me wished I had made it a little bigger, but there’s less room for your bag under an aisle seat, so in the end, this size worked great.
Inside
I wanted a separate sections for my laptop and my other things. I created two pockets and added a tie to the laptop side. When I used this as a purse, the laptop side was filled with fun things for distracting my daughter, like coloring books, story books, stickers, etc. At the beach, it held my book and knitting project.
Outside
A zipper closure was essential. I didn’t want anything to fall out during airport screening and I didn’t want any sand getting inside. Durability was important, also. The outside is an upholstery fabric and the inside is a cotton canvas.
How-to
This bag is basically an oversized zipper pouch with handles and two inside large pockets. It seems silly to write up a tutorial when there are so many great ones already out there. For this project, I referenced the following:
- Sarah of My Spare Time has a really nice tutorial for a zipper organizer with pockets and a gusset.
- Anna of twelve22 has great detail pictures for pinning the zipper toward the lining.
- Florence of Flossie Teacakes shows you how to do zipper ends, which I think are a really nice touch.
Adding the handles was easy. I just sandwiched them between the outside fabric and zipper when I was sewing it all together. I reinforced the handles with a few rows of extra stitching.
stash: Fabric came from this remnant sale. Zipper was thrifted.
I absolutely love your laptop bag! How much of that lovely poppy fabric were you able to get? I do wish that I could get my hands on enough of it to make my own bag,or can I make you an offer on yours? Perhaps you thought of making one for the etsy site…
You’ve been a wonderful inspiration.
Thanks, S
This bag is just divine! It’s finished so beautifully and everything about it is just perfect :) Okay, you’re my sewing guru now, Julie. I love the sentence in your intro re if it can fit under the presser foot it’s fair game! So fabulous :) K
I super DIG the heavyweightish texture of that fabric. It’s so striking. Just lovely.