Weekender sneak peek

Well it's not really a peek as such since the outside is finished. I still have the lining to do, and I'm planning on adding some pockets in there. I made a lining from the dark pink but I thought it was a bit too strong a colour so I've decided to switch to a light pink lining.

Tips in case you want to make one yourself
Timtex vs. Buckram
As you can see from the picture, the bag is the right shape and it stands up like that without anything inside. So it looks like the buckram works fine as a substitution for Timtex. I don't know exactly what Timtex is like, but it's probably more difficult to work with than the buckram. There were comments in the pattern such as "the Timtex may be difficult to fold" etc. and the buckram was fine. Also I didn't break any needles and I even forgot to switch to the heavy jeans needle before I started. Of course I slowed down a bit when going over the part where the cording comes out into the seams - where it was quite thick - but overall it just wasn't that difficult.

Materials

• In case you want to make it yourself, I'll mention that I used much less fabric than the pattern called for. I do tend to snug up the pattern pieces so as not to waste fabric because there's really no reason to have gaps between the pieces you cut out.
• I used two spools of thread and that included a reasonable amount of ripping out and resewing.
• It was fine to use fusable interfacing whereas the pattern calls for non-fusable. For the bottom of the bag you insert an extra layer of Timtex (or in my case buckram) between the interfacing and outer fabric. So at that point you don't fuse the interfacing so as to leave a gap to insert the piece of Timtex. But after it was all assembled I put an iron inside the bag (which is quite roomy) and ironed the bottom to fuse the interfacing.
• For the zipper of course you can use a separating zipper (instead of non-separating which can be hard to find) and just stitch over the end part.
• For the cording it tells you to join up all the strips of fabric to cover your cording. But you only need four separate pieces of cording: one strip to go around each face of the bag and two smaller strips to trim the large pockets. So you don't really need to make one long piece of cording. As I mentioned before I used boot laces that were nice and round and 1/4"

Overall
This is a great pattern. I learned a lot while making it - such as the proper way to sew in a zipper and get those little flaps that cover it. As long as you take your time and just think about one step at a time it's not that difficult - I found the instructions and diagrams to be quite clear. Probably you should have some sewing experience. And finally it's bigger than I expected but we measured and checked the airline specs and it's just under the maximum size for carry-on luggage. Which is what I wanted it for. Overall I think mine is cute but not as nice as my birdy inspiration so I've been musing about making another one sometime...