A bag that can fit all the essentials for a day trip or weekend adventure is a must-have item for the holiday season! We spotted the Weekender Bag by All Well Workshop which ticks loads of boxes - it's well designed, simple yet functional, with a great timeless design and shape. We've sewn ours up in Dark Fern Heavyweight Stretch Cotton Twill, (available in stores and online) and we're thrilled with the result, read on for all the details!
Pattern Review
All Well Workshop Weekender
The weekender is an unlined bag with shorter inset handles as well as longer handles for comfortably slinging over your shoulder, and is finished with a zip closure to keep those precious bits and pieces contained. It has four exterior pockets and one interior pocket with the options of a basic pocket or fancy! We went *fancy* for this one but the instructions for both are included! All Well suggests this project is appropriate for confident beginners (but will be fun for sewists of all levels to sew) which we agree with, if you have some experience with sewing bias binding and zips you should have no trouble!
We followed the clear and well-written instructions for this bag and didn't make any major modifications to the pattern! The only details we changed was to cut some of our binding pieces out on the straight grain that are for sewing onto straight seams, making it a bit easier and quicker to cut.
The finished dimensions of the bag are 16" (40.6 cm) high, 21.5" (54.6 cm) wide and 8" (20.3 cm) deep
Check out the handy list All Well has provided of all the supplies you'll need for this project here!
Fabric Recommendations
Dark Fern Heavyweight Stretch Cotton Twill + Cornflower Berry Branches Cotton
We wanted to use a nice sturdy fabric that would hold its shape and put up with a bit of wear and tear, as well as picking a colour that would pair easily with any outfit. In total the project used 1.5m of our 146cm wide Dark Fern Heavyweight Stretch Cotton Twill and 0.6m of our 109cm wide Cornflower Berry Branches Cotton.
To go with our Weekender, we made some cute pouches that are handy for storing any extra loose items in. These took 22cm x 22cm of our Berry Branches Cotton and our Heavyweight Natural Linen fabrics and two 18cm metal zips.
All Well Workshop suggests using woven heavyweight non-stretch fabric, like canvas fabrics or similar, check out some of our suitable fabric suggestions below to get inspired!
From the top is Fine Stripe Stretch Cotton / Modal Twill - Black, Leopard Print Stretch Cotton Drill - Cappuccino, Cotton Canvas - Burnt Orange, Bonded Awning Stripe Cotton - Blue / White / Forest and 12oz Japanese Selvedge Denim - Navy
It was tricky to find a matching top-stitching thread colour so we followed the handy suggestion from All Well Workshop to double our regular sewing thread, this worked a treat and can also be a helpful fix if your sewing machine tension doesn't like the heavyweight top-stitching thread!
The Weekender was such an enjoyable project! If you're in need of a handy bag for forthcoming holiday adventures, this is definitely one to try. Share your makes with us over on Instagram @wearethefabricstore using #TheFabricStore