Town Bag Sew-Along Supply List
With the Town Bag Sew-Along rapidly approaching, it's time to take a more in-depth look at the supplies required to create your own bag.
Town Bag Pattern
The first thing you’ll need to sew up the Town Bag is the pattern. You can purchase the pattern both in printed and PDF format in our shop, or check with your local fabric store to see if they carry our patterns!
Fabric
To ensure the Town Bag stands up on its own the way the original bags did, we recommend using 8-10oz cotton canvas. The Town Bag above was made from the fabric included in our Town Bag Fabric & Notions kits. This kit’s 10oz, 100% cotton duck canvas is the same fabric that was used for the production of the pre-made Town Bags. It features a water repellant finish and is a great choice if you aren’t sure what fabric to order.
If you’re interested in making your Town Bag out of another type of fabric, such as a printed canvas, just know that it will be a bit less structured than the original bag. The canvas fabric that most big fabric companies print on is about 6oz, but if this is your first time sewing with thicker fabric, or you’re worried about your sewing machine going through the heavier canvas, this is a great choice!
Handle Webbing
To make the handles of the Town Bag you’re going to need 1 ½ yds (1.4m) of 1 ¼" (3.27mm) wide cotton webbing. The webbing in our kits is the same high quality, durable webbing used on the original Town Bags, so if you don’t feel like sourcing this on your own, our kits are a great option!
Cotton Cording
The top of the Town Bag closes with two lengths of braided cotton cording that cinch to keep your project from falling out. It can be difficult to source this sturdy of a braid in small enough quantities through the regular home sewing channels, so we’re excited to offer it to you via our notions and fabric kits. You’ll need 2 ½ yds (2.3m) of 5/32" circumference 100% cotton braided cording to close your bag.
Thread
For our Town Bags we used 100% polyester all purpose thread in a color that matched the fabric. We tested a heavier thread and found that it was difficult for all of our machines to create a stitch that’s even on the front and back. If you’re looking for a thread color to match one of our kits, we have a handy chart featuring a few widely available thread brands here.
Denim Machine Needles
We recommend that you use a denim machine needle (we used size 100/16) to construct your Town Bag. This needle is heavy duty enough to sew through the thickest parts of the bag with ease.
Rivets
In the original Town Bag the straps are secured both by stitching and rivets but when making your own, the rivets are optional. If you don’t feel comfortable setting rivets you can easily sew an X through the rectangle attaching the handles to the bag for added security. If you’re up for setting rivets, we recommend using 6mm, 6.4mm post double cap rivets, of which you’ll need 8 plus any you need for testing out your setting technique. We have sets of 10 rivets available in our shop since often time you’ll end up with 50 - 1000 rivets ordering on your own.
Rivet Setting Tools
If setting rivets, you’ll need the tools to do so! To cut the hole for the rivets to go through, you’ll need a 3/32" round punch. The best punch we found is from The Buckle Guy. The tools are very solid, always cut, and it was a little difficult to find this size punch in other places. To set the rivets you’ll need a 6mm Rivet Setter with base, which we also purchased from The Buckle Guy.
Mallet or Hammer
The final tool you’ll need to complete your Field Bag is a mallet or hammer of some sort. You’ll use this to tap the end of the punch and setter to complete your rivet installation. We definitely recommend using one of the extra rivets included in our kits for practice before going ahead on your bag!
So those are the fabrics, tools and supplies you’ll need to sew up your own Town Bag! We’ll cover all of this again in the first sew-along video when the sew-along starts on March 13th, but until then this should guide you in ordering any supplies you’ll need. To be notified when we post sew-along videos you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here. I can’t wait to sew along with you!
