I don’t remember when or where I first saw this fabric, but I absolutely fell in love at first sight. I’m a cat person from birth to now. I lost my last good cat around four years ago. If he had been my only cat at that time, I would have gotten another cat. But there was Angel, who was not an angel. When we finally had Angel put to sleep, the vet said, “You’re doing him a favor. He’s never been a happy cat.” I’m pretty sure if I examine my arms closely enough, I can still find the scars from his many bites.
So I am now catless, in a pandemic when I am home all the time and would love to have a sweetie pie cat settle in my lap. But Spousal Equivalent shakes his head every time I ask what he thinks about adopting another cat from a shelter. So I admire everyone else’s cat pics on Instagram and Facebook. And I swoon over cat fabric.
But really, isn’t this the coolest fabric print you’ve ever seen.
And the bag. THE BAG!!! This is the Sew Sweetness Vacation Packing Cube, which is part of Sara Lawson’s Minikins Season 2 set of patterns. Yes, the Minikins sets (there are two) are not inexpensive, but, boy, are these great patterns. You’ll find yourself making most every one over and over again.
As I was getting to the final half hour of sewing on this bag this morning, I was getting more and more excited. I had a feeling this would be my favorite bag I’ve ever made.
I made several mistakes on this bag, which I discovered quickly and was able to take a mulligan on. When I make the bag again, I will print out the names of each pattern piece and attach those names to each pattern piece. My error was sewing the top and bottom pieces to the front zippers instead of sewing the front top and front bottom pieces to the zippers. So I had to undo those seams and sew the front pieces on instead. That cost me the amount of time equivalent to one episode of the old TV show I’m bingeing while I sew. The only other error occurred while sewing the exterior back and sides, and the lining back and sides. I needed to leave the ends open ¼” as I sewed all those right angles together. I had finished the exterior when I went to bed last night. I sat in bed and watched that part of Sara’s video again and said, “Aha.” Then I was back in the sewing room before 7:00 a.m. to undo those corners and redo them correctly.
So if those were my only errors, I’m in pretty good shape.
The pattern set is Sew Sweetness Minikins Season 2. The individual pattern is Vacation Packing Cube, size Large. (The sizes are S, M, L, XL. The dimensions of the Large are 13¾” long x 12¾” tall x 4″ deep.)
If you want to see more examples of these packing cubes and you’re an Instagrammer, search on #vacationpackingcube.
The fabric is Robert Kauffman, the designer is Neiko Ng, the collection is Whiskers & Tails.
The lining fabric is Paradise Falls by Hello Angel for Wilmington Prints in color Pacific.
The zippers are from ZipIt Zippers on Etsy. She’s the best!
I plan to make more of these packing cubes. I’ll probably get all of them finished before we’re able to travel again, but won’t it be wonderful to have these cubes to organize my suitcase next time we head someplace fun?
I really prefer zipper tape to finished zippers. It offers much greater flexibility in terms of the kind of zipper application you want to make. I buy it from https://www.thezipperlady.com. You can mix and match colours; you can add different colour slides, you can do loop zipper applications.
Thank you for the suggestion, Judith. I’ve used zipper tapes a couple of times. I need to think about them more frequently.