Chambray Grainline Studio Stowe Bag

The Grainline Studio Stowe Bag in dark blue cotton/tencel chambray

Hi everybody,

I made all kinds of garments over the years, but a bag, never... until now! For my first foray into bag making I chose the Stowe Bag by Grainline Studio.

I find its minimalist aesthetic very appealing, and I do appreciate its practical side - although I think it was originally designed as a craft bag, I use mine for my errands so I don't have to use plastic bags that are so harmful for the environment.

This is the small version

The Stowe Bag is very well thought and drafted. For my first version (as there will be others, for sure), I chose a medium/lightweight cotton/tencel chambray I got with my monthly fabric allowance as a Fabric Mart Fabricista (you can check my March post here). I thought this fabric would be just right for that type of bag and I'm really happy with how it turned out. This beautiful dark blue chambray has just the right amount of crispness to it to hold its shape. (By the way there is plenty still available here!)

This is how the bag looks flat:

The Stowe Bag has inner pockets where you can put your small stuff like keys, cards or cell phone, and the edges are finished with double fold bias. I made my own bias binding by cutting 4 cms wide strips of fabric. Once sewn, and taking into account the turn of cloth, this makes a nice binding a little over 1/4'', but not quite 1 cm.

Here are 2 pictures showing the finishes with self fabric bias binding:

I bought the PDF version of the pattern; the small version of the bag doesn't have many pages to print and it is really quick to tape and cut.

I found the illustrations in the instructions not self explanatory; in some steps they confused me more than anything else. I think it's better to rely on reading the instructions than to look at the illustrations to make sure you don't do anything wrong.

This bag is way too much fun to sew! I have enough of this fabric left and will sew the large version in a near future.

If you haven't tried the Stowe Bag, don't hesitate, it is relatively quick to make once you are familiar with the steps, and it is a very practical bag.

Bye for now,

Virginie