Pattern Review: Carnaby Carry All Bag

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Hey Guys! I have been away from my sewing room for a while now to deal with some personal things happening in my life. Sometimes I go through phases where I sew every day and then I have months like this where I don’t sew at all because there is so much going on. I haven’t even been on Pinterest which is completely out of character for me. Anyway, I stumbled across Pinterest this morning and realized that this bag is one of the most popular on the blog! I had no idea it was doing so well on social media. This bag is still the first one I grab when I have a ton of stuff to carry with no time to pack and organize. It is big and stylish and will go well with your bag collection. Don’t we all have a collection? 🙂

The fabric is from designer Pat Bravo. The main outer fabric which is on the bottom is called “Girl about town lime” and the complimentary fabric is called “Ladylike green tea”. They are from Pat Bravo’s Carnaby Street line. I absolutely love the designs from Carnaby St. This bag is like the name says; a carry all bag. Measuring ~20″ long X 14″ high, its a lot bigger than I am used to, but will definitely come in handy on overnight trips or trips to the beach. It uses 1 yard of each of the fabrics plus lining and interfacing. Enjoy the free pattern.

To make this bag you need:
1 yard main fabric
1 yard coordinating fabric
1 yard lining
1 yard fleece interfacing

Step 1- Cut your pieces

Cut all your pieces from the pattern HERE. I did not write how many pieces to cut out on the pattern so follow instructions here>>>: 3 front pieces (main, lining, fleece interfacing), 3 back pieces (main, lining, fleece interfacing), 1 left overlay coordinate fabric, 1 right overlay coordinate fabric, 3 pocket (2 main, 1 interfacing), 1 front bottom strip coordinating fabric, 1 pocket binding coordinating fabric, 1 front top binding coordinating fabric, 1 back top binding coordinating fabric, 8 loops/tube pieces main, 6 strap pieces (fleece interfacing, main, coordinate fabric)

Step 2- Iron on your interfacing

Add the fleece interfacing to your main front piece and your main back piece. All fleece interfacing to back of your two main strap pieces. Iron on your interfacing to you pocket piece.

Step 3- The front overlay

Form a sandwich with your 3 pocket pieces. Sew a loose stitch (highest stitch length) all the way around your pocket. Add the binding to the top of the pocket piece. With right sides together, sew the pocket piece in the middle of your overlay pieces. Iron down the left over to seams on the overlays.

Form the sandwich with the interfacing in the middle.

Make your binding by folding down the two ends towards the middle

Add your binding to the top of the pocket piece

Sew all around your pocket piece

With right sides together, sew the pocket piece to the two overlays

Here is your finished front overlay

Step 4- Complete your front
Align your overlay to the top of the front main piece and sew down using the red line as your guide on where to sew. Sew on the overlay binding all the way down the bottom of the overlay cover all your stitches.

Sew on the overlay binding

Sew down the binding with two stitches

Step 5- Connect the front and back
Sew the front pieces and the back pieces together using the guide below. Bring forward your two unsewn bottom side pieces to form a triangle. Sew a straight line across the triangle as shown. Repeat step 5 for the lining.

Sew the front to the back using the red line as a guide

Here is your opened side bottom piece

Sew a line straight across

This is what it will look like when you turn the back inside out

Do this entire process for your lining piece as well

Step 5- Complete main bag

Take the lining and fit it into the main bag. Using a long stitch sew the lining to the main bag. Make the binding for the top edges. From the pattern, you would need to cut 4 pieces and join two together to get the front binding and 2 together to get the back binding. Sew on the binding over the top of the lining and the main bag.

Fit lining into main bag wrong sides together and sew all around the top.

Sew on your binding all the way around doing the front first then the back.

This is what it will look like when its all sewn on.

Step 6-Make the straps
Take the strip that you ironed on the interfacing on and fold in the edges about 1/2″ in. Iron down. Take the other coordinating piece and do the same thing to the edges. Lay the coordinating piece over the main piece and sew down. I did 4 long stitches on mine to make it look quilted.

Fold the edges of your straps

Lay coordinating strap over the main strap

Top stitch the two down on the sides

Step 7- Attach straps and complete
Sew straps to inner top edges of 4 top pieces of the bag. Make the loops/tubes by sewing two pieces right sides together and turning them inside out. Wrap the tubes on each of the strap pieces to cover the opened seam.

Sew straps to inner top of the bag. Each strap will connect to its opposite neighbor: front to front and back to back.