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Purse Palooza – Pattern Review – Noodlehead Caravan Tote

(null)This post is part of Purse Palooza 2015. For full details and contest rules, check here.
Today’s post is from Tiffany.

Purse Palooza 2015 at Sew Sweetness

Hello everyone! I am super happy to be guest blogging for Sara’s Purse Palooza today!

The pattern I chose to review was Noodlehead “Caravan Tote”.  

This is the caravan tote I made for a swap for a friend, I absolutely need to make one for myself now!

Let me just begin by saying how much I love Noodlehead patterns. She offers several wonderful free patterns, which helped me get acquainted with her style and made me fall in love with her creations. After making several of her free patterns, I knew purchasing a pattern was a good bet with her, as her instructions are well written, easy to follow, and help me make a professional looking project every time!

Fabric requirements:

The pattern calls for the following amounts of fabric, which I found to be pretty accurate:

  • Exterior Fabric 3/4 yard (1/2 yard if not making pouch)
  • Contrast Top/Pocket Fabric 1/2 yard
  • Zippered Pocket Lining Fabric 3/4 yard
  • Lining Fabric 1/2 yard
  • Lining Center Panel Fabric FQ
  • Interior Slip Pocket Fabric FQ
  • Handle Fabric** 1/4 yard
 

I used quilting weight cotton and feel that, along with my interfacing choices, the bag has a great shape and sturdiness to it and will hold up well without being too floppy nor too stiff.

I deviated from the pattern suggestions, which were to use Pellon 809 on the outside and SF101 on the inside. Instead, I used Pellon 809 for the handles and inside pieces, and fusible fleece for the outside. I liked the softness the fusible fleece gave the bag, and the sturdiness the 809 gave the inside. It would be a little thin for my taste just using 809/101 as the pattern suggests, but that is just my preference.

Construction & Style:

This purse bag has a great amount of storage options. There is a zippered pocket on the front, snap pocket on the front, slip pocket on the inside, and magnetic closure on the inside. I felt like this gave the bag a great look on the outside, as well as a good amount of secure storage options for all my little items with a lot of room for larger items inside the bag itself.

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Instructions and Pattern Pieces:

The pattern gives printable pieces, as well as measurements for cutting, as everything except the front flap is just a rectangular piece that needs to be cut to a specific measurement. I like not having several  pattern pieces to print, cut, and keep track of – so I’m glad both options were given.

The instructions were clear and logical to follow. As long as I paid attention, nothing was complicated nor confusing and all in all the construction went very smoothly.

The only area I had issues with was in the cutting instructions, it lists 3 interfacing pieces for the handles – but there are only 2 handles. These 3 pieces are shorter than the long handle pieces cut from fabric, and it never explains why. In the end, you are supposed to cut the third piece and attach it to make the other 2 longer, but I felt like this was unnecessarily confusing. It either needed to be explained in the cutting and interfacing instructions, or changed to jus tell people to cut 2 pieces that match the size of the handles and be done with it.

Overall tho, for such a fancy looking bag, it was rather painless and enjoyable to make and so I can’t complain much if the handle interfacing was the only part that tripped me up!

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Conclusion:
Overall I think this is a well written, easy and logical to follow pattern which makes for a beautiful finished tote bag. I would recommend this pattern even for a confident beginner, as even the zipper construction is fairly simple compared to other bags I’ve made and as long as pay attention and follow the instructions, there are no parts that should trip you up. It was enjoyable to make and I will definitely be making more in the future!

Thanks for following along with me today here at Purse Palooza! Happy Sewing everyone!

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3 thoughts on “Purse Palooza – Pattern Review – Noodlehead Caravan Tote

  1. Hilari Sheffield says:

    Great review! And I am so in love with that sloth fabric! 🙂

  2. Dana says:

    I made this tote for a friend! Love it! Love those fabric choices, too. I made my daughter a bucket hat with that sloth print.

  3. Maria says:

    What a cute tote Tiffany ! Love your fabric choices. Thanks for the great review 🙂

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