Linen Travel Bags

I know it’s 2 weeks into the year, but I still can’t believe that it’s a new year.  I’m a tad bit slow this year to wrap my head around it. I suppose nothing really changes from December to January, it’s all mental. However, I like to look at it as a fresh start and a whole year to try new things. There are so many things I want to do this year- traveling to more nature based locations, exploring our city a bit more, calligraphy, foraging, woodworking, more knitting, sewing, the list goes on and on.

I realized that there is just so much to learn and owning things are so much more gratifying when you’ve spent the time to make them. I doubt I’ll go nuts and start making everything I own, but it’s nice to be able to say I’ve given it a go. These Linen Travel Bags were very much missing from my travel kit and make my life so much easier, so naturally they were the first thing I was dying to make!

As much as I love traveling, I absolutely hate packing. The only thing worse is unpacking. It turns into a very monotonous experience every time, which gets easier over time but no more exciting. One of the things that I absolutely love is having individual bags to put things in. Shoes, chargers, hair products, unmentionables, etc. It makes life so easy to have everything in its place. Not only is it easier to pack your bags, living out of a suitcase is so much less stressful!

However, I’ve never really been able to find something that I love. I’ve been using Baggu zip up bags for awhile and think they work great. The zipper keeps things in and the nylon is easy to wipe down. Unfortunately, they have discontinued these simple bags in neutral colors which makes things a bit difficult. After scouring the internet for a suitable replacement, I came up empty handed and decided the only way was to make them myself. How hard can a simple drawstring bag be?

Turns out, a simple drawstring is very easy, but if you want a nicely refined product (which I of course do), it takes a bit bigger of a skill set than I apparently have at this point in time. Not to worry, my mother was around to help me out and together we tried out quite a few things before we settled on these.

Since I’m not a sewing expert (yet! I hope to learn much more this year), I don’t have any specific instructions for these yet. However, this video and this video were immensely helpful. The other skills were that of my mother’s and a bit of figuring it out as you go. Apparently everyone in my mothers generation learned these basic skills while in school and unfortunately that was very much lost by the time my generation went through the schooling system. I do wish that I had learned such things, but I guess its never too late!

A few tips – 1. learn to sew straight 2. iron down things as you go, it will make sewing straight lines easier and result in a uniform product 3. practice, practice, practice.

I’m really looking forward to experimenting a bit more this year with all sorts of things. Hopefully I’ll learn a lot and have a house full of great products that I love to use! Is there anything that you’d like to try your hand at this year?