The Sew My Stash Bag Challenge

Since the beginning of the year, I have been making a serious effort to take part in the challenge that Leasa over at Project: Leasa put forth for us to be sewing from our own stashes for our projects.  I have actually been really enjoying it.  It's quite satisfying to put together a whole or most of a project simply from the fabric I have sitting on the shelf.  And even more satisfying is finding fabric that I had forgotten about and falling back in love with it all over again.
Anyways, for the month of April, Leasa issued another challenge to help keep us motivated.  The Sew My Stash 2015: Bag Challenge is a challenge to make a bag (larger than a zippy pouch) that is made 75% from stash and finished by the end of the month.  There was bonus for making a coordinating zippy for the bag. 

I saw this challenge come out right after the craft fair I had in early April.  I was a little burned out from all the crazy amounts of sewing I had been doing to prep for the craft fair, and this challenge was the perfect thing to help me get my sewing mojo going again.  Now I'm sure you are aware that just like any other crafter/sewing/maker out there, I have a "want to sew/make/do" list a mile long.  On that list is to make a pair of Cargo Duffel Bags for my boys for when me take road trips to go see either set of grandparents.  Well, I didn't really have time to make two duffel bags since I have an impending pile of little people birthday sewing calling my name, but I did have time to make one.  

 So, over the coarse of a few of days, I pulled out some of my toddler's favorite prints from my stash - mostly anything that has cars, fire trucks, trains, the color blue, and mustaches on it makes him happy.  Thankfully I had enough interfacing in my stash for this bag as well.  Oh and I had the zippers and snaps I need too - making this bag made from 100% of my stash! 
Since it's my second time making this bag (I made one as an overnight bag when I had the baby last spring), it made making this bag a little easier and also I knew what modifications I wanted to make to the bag.  I ended up using Soft and Stable to interface the main body of the bag which gave it great shape without being stiff.  I cheat when using Soft and Stable - I use quilting spray baste to baste the fabric onto the Soft and Stable making it then a breeze to work with.  I also added 2 inches to the zipper/bottom gusset of the bag making it 2 inches wider.  On the back panel, I inserted a zipper that went the length of the panel.  I then added a secondary panel to the back panel creating a large pocket for holding story books.  The last change that I made to the pattern for the bag was to add a "lining" fabric to the back side of each of the main bag pieces.  Thus when bag pieces were quilted and all sewn together, it looks like the inside has a lining even though it technically doesn't. 

 I really do like making this bag because its a very straightforward bag pattern that is easily tweaked to customize the bag as desired.  The only part that made me want to throw the bag across the room was the last step where binding is used to finish off the raw edges on the inside of the bag, but I pushed through and finished it! 

There were a few scraps left over which I ended up using to make a toiletry zipper bag, a toothbrush pouch and a drawstring bag.  Looks like the toddler has everything he needs for a sleepover trip to grandma's house - which he keeps asking me about almost every day..."are we going to grandma's house now?"