Sunsetridge – The Acorn Bag

Hello Quilty Friends, Rachel here from Stitch With Rachel.

This week I had the pleasure of creating a patchwork bag with the brand new collection from Minki Kim called Sunsetridge. The collection features soft mint and blush tones with a pop of coral.

I selected my four favourite prints and a co-ordinating confetti cotton fabric to create a quilted backpack. The pattern that I have used is the Acorn Bag by Adam Sews which can be found here. I thought that the front panel of the bag was the perfect place to showcase one of the large floral prints.

The first step in the pattern is to create the bag panels and quilt these. I have used a foam wadding inside my bag to add structure. I always find that your quilting design will really pop when you use foam instead of traditional wadding so this adds some extra detail to the bag too.

Once everything is quilted, you start start assembling the bag and everything slowly starts to take shape. You start by creating the front zipper pocket and I took this opportunity to add some contrast binding. I have used an antique brass zipper but you could opt for a contrasting zip to add a pop to colour. I purchase my zips and zipper pulls from a UK based company called Purple Stitches.

I really enjoyed sewing this bag! Adam, the pattern design, has a video tutorial included so he guided me through all the construction steps. The video is in real time so I was able to sew along with him and pause the video when I needed to.

I always find the hardest part of bag making is sewing the gusset to the front/back panels, and this is just because of the amount of layers you need to sew through. Some tips for this stage of the process are: Use a denim needle in your sewing machine, take the stitches slowly and hand crank your machine in any really thick areas.

As soon as I finished the bag, I used it for a day out and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I could fit in there and how comfortable it was to carry on my back. The padded straps are a brilliant addition to the pattern.

If you are a bag maker, please leave your pattern suggestions in the comments of this blog. I’d love to discover more patterns.

Thank you so much for joining me, if you’d like to check out more of my sewing content, pop over to my Instagram or YouTube page.

Happy Quilting
Love, Rachel xx