Xanadu II Bag
How’s everyone doing?
I’m doing pretty well, but I can’t believe how sloooooow I’ve been about writing blog posts! I made this bag in the late fall of 2020… well, better late than never, right?
My go-to me-made bag has been the grey ponte bag for a few years now. It’s light weight, the right size, and the neutral colour goes with pretty much everything. So I was determined to make another grey bag!
This time I choose Xanadu 2 pattern (by RLR Creations Sewing Patterns.) The original Xanadu Traveler is bigger and just like the name suggests, it sounds perfect as a travel bag or a gym bag. Xanadu 2 is much smaller and more of a purse/hand bag size. Xanadu 2 actually comes in two sizes and I chose the smallest size, mini.
You’d also have options of making the bag with a bottom zipper compartment or with a contrast bottom. I chose the latter, no zipper compartment but with a contrasting coloured bottom.
First of all, Xanadu 2 is a great pattern! It’s well constructed and the bag is full of functional details. But because of those details, it’s more time consuming to put together than a simple tote bag. But it’s totally worth it.
The pattern suggests decor fabric or quilting cotton as main fabric. I’m not sure how heavy decor fabric usually is, but my choice of fabric is much heavier and stiffer than quilting cotton. Both colours of main fabric were left over twill fabric from London Backpack 2.0 and The Traveller Crossbody Bag.
It turned out very sturdy and it holds up the shape very well which I wanted, but my fabric choice definitely made the process more difficult. I’m even surprised I didn’t broke a single needle while sewing this bag… at times, I felt bad for my sewing machine because it had to work so hard!
So that’s something to keep in mind. If you’re a beginner or your sewing machine isn’t up for heavy duty sewing, maybe listen to the fabric suggestions, and go with quilting cotton!
It has two outer pockets: one is a slip pocket and another is a zip pocket. I love a bag with lots of pockets!
I used a Sallie Tomato zipper again! After I used it for the first time for my wool plaid bag, I fell in love with this zipper. They look like metal (the zipper pull is made of metal) but the zipper teeth is actually nylon, so it’s much easier to sew! The zipper itself is very smooth too.
I bought mine from Thread Count Fabrics and I used Grey/Gunmetal colour for this bag.
The zipper tab area was probably the hardest part to sew; there are lots of layers and the thick layered fabric was tricky to sew with my regular sewing machine. (Again, this has a lot to do with my fabric choice.) Some parts were sort of impossible to use my sewing machine on, so I hand stitched them.
Xanadu 2 uses a lot of rivets as well, I think I’ve gotten better at installing it after making this bag! Just like the zipper, I used gunmetal colour hardware everywhere.
The interior also is equipped with pockets on both side. Slip pockets and a zipper pocket. Super functional!
The lining fabric is a quilting weight cotton from Cotton + Steel. It’s Alice in Wonderland themed print by Rifle Paper Co. It’s so pretty.
The side swivel hooks can be attached to a longer crossbody strap. I’ve made the longer strap too, but I doubt that I’d use it. This bag is pretty deep that it doesn’t sit comfortably as a crossbody.
I feel that this bag could be the sewing project that I’ve put the most effort into so far. But I’m so happy that I made it. (Also so happy that it’s done!)
This bag was a labour of love, I’m planning to use it a lot in the future.
Mar 1, 2021
