Portside Dopp Kit Supply List
1. Portside Pattern: You can find the pattern here.
2. Main Fabric: For this pattern we recommend medium to heavy weight fabrics such as canvas, twill, most fabric labeled home dec weight. Lighter fabric can be used but may need to be more heavily interfaced or interlined so keep that in mind. The heavier weight fabric is what helps the bag keep its shape. In our Portside sample, the blue fabric is the main, and the white is the contrast.
3. Contrast Fabric: You'll want this fabric to be a similar weight to your main fabric so that your bag doesn't collapse in spots and holds up uniformly across the two fabrics. As we mentioned above, the white fabric on our Portside samples is the contrast fabric.
4. Lining Fabric: For the lining fabric we recommend something similar to a quilting cotton or a bit lighter. This is an excellent time to use up those great prints you might have sitting around that don't quite work for garments! I'll be talking more about fabric ideas on Friday also, so if you need more help, stay tuned for that post.
5. Fusible Interfacing: You’ll want to choose an interfacing that reflects the properties of the outer fabric you’ve chosen. A mid-weight woven interfacing would be a great choice for this project. Typically we tell people to avoid bonded interfacings but if you want a stiff, structured bag, they would work in this situation.
6. Zippers: You'll need 1 – 13″ zipper and 1 – 9″ zipper for your dopp kit. We used metal zippers for our samples that we created from zipper tape, but any regular zipper will work—just make sure you don't have an invisible zipper!
7. Leather Scrap (optional): We use the leather scrap to create custom zipper pulls. You can also leave the pulls as is, or purchase one of the many cool zipper pulls that are for sale these days.
8. Thread: I prefer to use standard poly thread for my projects. I like poly because I pre-treat my fabrics and I know that poly won’t shrink when laundered, keeping my seams nice and neat. Try to use high quality thread as it’s kinder to your machine.
9. Marking Chalk: You’ll need chalk or your favorite removable marking pen to both trace out your pattern. This is my favorite chalk tracing pen, but use whatever works for you!
10. Scissors: I’m not much of a rotary person, but the scissors I find most useful for almost every project I make are my Gingher bent handle shears, embroidery scissors, and thread snips. I couldn’t sew without them.
11. Rulers: For this project I use all three of the above measuring tools. My trusty measuring tape for laying out my pattern pieces on grain, and the clear plastic rulers for various measurements during the project.
12. Pins: Whatever pins you usually use should be just fine for this, just make sure they're strong enough to go through two layers of your outer fabrics and you're all set.
13. Regular Machine Foot: I love my 1/4″ foot (which BERNINA calls the Patchwork Foot) because of the accuracy it provides but I recommend using whatever you’re used to.
14. Zipper Foot: This one will come in handy when we sew in the zippers. Again make sure you have a regular zipper foot and not an invisible zipper foot!
14. Hand Sewing Needles: You’ll need a needle to finish off the lining of the bag, whatever you have laying around should be just fine for this purpose.
Dopp Kit Yardage
Since we're only making the Dopp Kit in this sew-along, you won't need to order all of the fabric listed on the pattern envelope. If you don't own the pattern yet, you can always find the yardages in our product listings under the "Sizing and Yardage" tab. If you're looking for just the Dopp yardage we've got you covered here:
- Main Fabric: This is the self, or blue fabric, in our sample. You'll need 3/8 yd to make only the Dopp Kit, and that's in both 45 & 54" wide fabric.
- Contrast Fabric: This is the contrast, or white fabric, in our sample. You'll need 1/2 yd to make only the Dopp Kit, and again, that's both 45 & 54" wide fabric.
- Lining: You'll need 3/4 yd of fabric, again this is the same for 45 & 54" wide fabric. If you'd like to make your Dopp Kit one color on the outside, this is also the yardage you'll need.
Hope that helps on the fabric front! Please keep in mind that these yardages are only for the Dopp and you won't be able to squeeze anything else out of it.
