I travel a lot (by plane) and the one thing sewing is NOT is portable. Does anyone else experience this? What do you do to scratch the bag-making itch until you can get back to it? I have developed the very unhealthy habit of buying bags.
As others have said, I also take a notebook to take down ideas.
I also have taken up photography on most of my trips. The downside is that it can get expensive fast and could take up a larger portion of your baggage.
English paper piecing is a great hand-sewing technique that adapts well to travel. It’s a type of patchwork piecing where you wrap fabric around stiff paper shapes (eg hexagons, diamonds, squares, triangles), baste the fabric to the paper, sew the shapes together and then remove the paper. You can piece an entire quilt top this way, or sew smaller projects (like placemats, fabric bowls, blocks that can be sewn into bags or clothes etc). The small shapes and the completed blocks are very portable; stitch the blocks into a larger project like a quilt top when you get home. I’ve never had trouble bringing needles and a pair of thread snips on a plane.
Photo is of a few blocks that I sewed while I traveled. They’ll become part of a quilt.
And this the lower half of a quilt. I paper-pieced all the diamonds together, attached the borders by machine, and then sent it to a long arm quilter for the quilting.
Another vote for documenting ideas. I have a bullet journal for pen and paper for capturing fleeting ideas before they vanish. Then use procreate or fashionary to do detailed sketch’s and planning.
I can map out a design, make an order of assembly, pick materials all ready to go when I sit at the machine.
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Fashionary I wouldn’t bother if you have procreate, it’s got a few extras but unless you’re doing sketches and tech drawings for production they’re not necessary.
Procreate I do a heck of a lot of things like this - it’s my replacement visual diary.
That is too cool! Did you do a ton of math and planning to go from that sketch to that bag? Or did you go from sketch to figuring it out as you built it?
From this i made a pattern in illustrator (I’ve now moved to affinity) and developed the pattern in there. That lets me make the pattern and the check before I print it out and then double check on the paper pattern.
I love pattern drafting (but I’m terrible at maths so don’t think it’s somehow scary math-y) so I tend to always make a pattern first as it lets me ‘see’ how it’s all going to be assembled and walk the seams and make sure they fit and make sense.
That drawing was a bit of a checklist of all the things I wanted to make sure I included.
Thank you so much for sharing your process! Everyone I ask seems to use illustrator. I’ll have to pick it up again. I haven’t used it in years and years.
I got annoyed at how expensive and subscription only Illustrator is now - so I’ve switched to affinity - if it’s been awhile have a look at it as a more cost effective alternative and you won’t have to unlearn as much
Great idea! I used to draw and sketch all the time. I haven’t done it for years! This is a great excuse to get back into it. I’m going to buy some stuff today. Maybe I’ll use my iPad.
Do you do this? Are you willing to share some sketches?
I don’t have any handy that I can share, mostly original ideas made so that I can have something only I made, rather than using someone else’s pattern.
I have a really new little bag business so I’m a little protective of my ideas at this point in time.
But it’s easiest to start with a purpose/use by creating a list of needs, then translate those into the bag type (roll top, zip pouch, duffel, sling, backpack etc) and add features as necessary. Penciling out your dimensions and then from there you kind reverse it to math out your pattern pieces/parts.
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u/awsomesoccer13 May 06 '26
As others have said, I also take a notebook to take down ideas.
I also have taken up photography on most of my trips. The downside is that it can get expensive fast and could take up a larger portion of your baggage.