Serendipity Hip / Lunar Bag Mash-up Tutorial by Elizabeth Widmayer

Hello everyone….Today Liz has a fabulous Serendipity/Lunar mash-up to share with you! Over to you Liz:

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Hello everyone! I still can’t believe that I won the Hack-a-Bag-a-Thon contest. It’s a great honor to write this tutorial for you (my first one!), and I hope it inspires you to get creative and try out some hacks on your own bags. First, a little about me – I am a Certified Public Accountant living in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. I’ve been quilting and sewing for decades, but I just started making bags earlier this year when I joined the Bag of the Month Club. And it’s through the club that I was introduced to ChrisW Designs and all of Christine’s great bag patterns.

When I made my Lunar Half Moon bag in the BOMC, I thought it would be great to have a matching purse to use when I’m traveling. I wanted a small bag with lots of pockets so I could stay organized; I liked the style and size of the Serendipity Hip bag and decided that with a few changes it might be a good match for my Lunar. And then Christine announced the contest, so even though I’ve never actually made the Serendipity before, I figured why not, I’d just give it a try and see what happens….

I made a lot of changes to my bag, but in this tutorial we are going to focus on the Serendipity / Lunar bag exterior mash-up hacks – modifying the bottom band on the Serendipity and adding a flap to the front pockets to match the Lunar. You will need the patterns for both bags to do these hacks; we will be following the instructions for the Serendipity bag and making some changes along the way. So grab your patterns, and here we go:

Starting at Step 1, cut out all the fabric, interfacing and fleece pieces as instructed in the Serendipity pattern, except don’t cut the following pieces:

• Body Exterior – exterior fabric, fusible interfacing and fleece
• Bottom Band – exterior fabric, fusible interfacing and fleece

Apply the fusible interfacing to the remaining pieces as instructed in the pattern at Step 2.

Modified Bottom Band

Pull out your Serendipity Body Exterior and Bottom Band pattern pieces. Draw a line ⅜” from the bottom of the Body Exterior piece, and ⅜” from the top of the Bottom Band piece.

Overlap the pattern pieces using these lines, matching the bottom edge of the exterior to the line on the Bottom Band, and tape the pieces together; you are making one pattern piece and eliminating the original seam allowance between the pieces.

Well, actually you are only eliminating half the seam allowance; I figured out later that technically I should have matched the drawn lines to eliminate the entire seam allowance. But everything worked out fine on the bag construction doing it this way, it just made the bag a tad longer, so we’ll keep moving forward…

This is your new exterior pattern piece; using this cut the following on the fold:

• Cut 2 Exterior fabric
• Cut 2 Fusible interfacing
• Cut 2 Fusible fleece

Trim ⅜” off all the edges of the fusible fleece pieces to reduce the bulk in the seams. Fuse the interfacing and then the fleece onto your exterior fabric pieces and set them aside.

Now find your Lunar Quarter Moon Bottom Band pattern piece. To make this the correct size for our hacked Serendipity, draw a line lengthwise 5” from the long, shaped side of the pattern piece; this will be your new fabric fold line. Also draw a line along the bottom edge 3 ⅝” from the top of the short side of the pattern piece.

Cut along the drawn lines. Then cut a 1” square out of the corner at the bottom of the long, shaped side of the pattern piece to match the original Serendipity pattern piece. This results in an accent band piece that is ¼” taller than the original Serendipity bottom band piece at its shortest center spot; the extra ¼” is used for sewing over the raw pocket edges on the exterior bag piece.

Using this new pattern piece cut the following on the fold:

• Cut 4 Contrast fabric
• Cut 2 Fusible interfacing

And I don’t know why I turned my pattern piece on its side when I took the picture below…

Fuse the interfacing onto two of the fabric pieces (I only interfaced two pieces to reduce bulk in the bag).  Place one interfaced and one non-interfaced piece right sides together, and sew along the top, curved edge with a ⅜” seam allowance. Trim the seam and clip curves; turn wrong sides together and press the seam well. Repeat with the remaining two fabric pieces, and set these aside for now.

Front Flap

I used the Lunar Half Moon flap, as it seemed to be the best size to cover the open pockets on front and was long enough to attach the magnetic snap below the zippered front pocket. I really like the result with the extra security of the flap to hold my cell phone in its pocket.

So using the Lunar pattern instructions, cut the following:

• Cut 2 exterior or contrasting fabric – 6 ⅛” x 4 ¼”
• Cut 2 fusible interfacing – 6 ⅛” x 4 ¼”
• Cut 1 fusible fleece – 5 ¼” x 3 ⅜”

You will also need a half moon magnetic snap. If you used a different type of closure on your Lunar and want to use the same type for the Serendipity, you will have to modify the instructions for your type of closure.

Fuse the interfacing to each of your flap fabrics, and then the fusible fleece to one of the flap pieces.

Add a scrap of Peltex for the half moon clasp centered just above the bottom seam line of the piece with the fleece. If you want to add a “Handmade” tag like I did, add this now; I recommend that you use a scrap piece of Peltex 2” x 3” in your flap, so you can fasten your handmade tag through the Peltex along with the half moon clasp. I use Peltex that is fusible on both sides (because I got that by mistake the first time I bought some and I’m not getting more till I use it up, ha-ha!). I use my no-stick pressing sheet to adhere it to the fabric on only one side. I press it lightly on the back of the fabric to get it in the correct placement…

Then I flip everything over and press again from the front side of the fabric to finish adhering the Peltex.

My handmade tag is centered 1 ½” below the top seam line.

I always glue or fuse a scrap of fleece over my handmade tag once it’s installed. And I neglected to take any pictures after the fleece scrap was applied…

Turn under the top seam edges of both pieces ⅜” and press. You can kind of see in the above pictures where I’ve already pressed under the top edges.

Place the pieces right sides together, pin and stitch the sides and bottom edges with a ⅜” seam leaving the top edges open. Trim corners, turn and press; this pressing fuses the other side of the double-sided fusible Peltex to the back flap fabric, which I think is a nice plus! Topstitch the sides and bottom ⅛” and ¼” from the edges. Install the half moon magnetic clasp centered onto the front bottom edge of the flap. As Christine says in her Lunar instructions, pop a bit of glue into the channel of the clasp – I use E6000 glue.

Set the flap aside for now.

Return to your Serendipity pattern instructions and follow Step 3 through Step 5 to finish the straps and strap tabs. Follow the pattern instructions for Step 6 a) through Step 6 o) to make your exterior zip pocket.

At this point, install the other half of your flap’s half moon magnetic snap to the right side of your Exterior Front Zipper Pocket piece, centered ¾” below the seam with the zipper. Fold the lining out of the way so you are only installing the snap through the exterior pocket piece. I add an extra scrap of fusible interfacing to the back of the pocket piece before installing the snap for additional strength, and then glue or fuse a scrap of fleece on top of the snap after it is installed.

The front of your zipper pocket with the magnetic snap should look like this:

Once the magnetic snap is installed, continue with Step 6 p) through Step 6 u) to finish the exterior zip pocket.

Retrieve one of your Body Exterior pieces and place it right side up on your table. With a disappearing marker, draw a line that is 3” above the bottom edge of the piece. I hope you can see the faint line in the picture below…

Place your prepared zipper pocket right side up on top, matching the bottom of the pocket assembly to the drawn line and the side raw edges. Pin and baste along the bottom edge of the pocket, using a ⅛” seam.

Pin the sides for now (this replaces Step 6 v).

Skip Step 6 w) through Step 6 y) for sewing the bottom bands. Prepare the Smart Phone Pocket as instructed in Step 7.

Here’s a photo of Step 7 e) – installing the Smart Phone Pocket on the front body exterior. I used my contrasting fabric for the backside of my zipper pocket assembly.

Now take one of your curved contrast bottom band pieces, and lay it on the front of your body exterior with the zipper pocket assembly, with the contrast band interfaced side up (non-interfaced side against the exterior piece). Line up the bottom edges and the cut out bottom corners, making sure that the top edge of the contrast band covers the stitching on the bottom edge of the zipper pocket. Pin in place and topstitch very close to the curved edge of the contrast band piece, and again ⅛” from the first stitching.

Repeat with the back exterior and remaining curved contrast band piece. I ended up with my contrast band pieces slightly wider than the exterior pieces, after all the fusing and pocket stitching; I just made sure they were centered before stitching, and then trimmed them to match the exterior pieces.

Now it’s time to attach your flap to your exterior front. Center the flap about ½” above the front pocket edge; it should be about 2 ¼” from each side. You want the flap to sit up a bit when snapped in place; check to make sure that there is enough space for your cell phone to fit comfortably in its pocket when the flap is snapped.

I found this easiest to do by drawing a placement line with a disappearing marker on the exterior front and then applying double-sided tape just below the line to hold the flap in place while sewing.

Stitch it in place along the flap top edge (closing the flap opening), ⅛” from the edge and again at ¼”. I put the flap inside the outer pocket while sewing it.

Your flap is installed on your front pockets!

Now return to your Serendipity pattern instructions, and starting at Step 8, finish the construction of your bag. Congratulations, you now have a Serendipity bag that matches your Lunar bag!

Thanks for letting me share my bag hacks with you! Happy Sewing!

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Thanks so much for sharing this with us Liz! AWESOME!

Do you have your Serendipity  & Lunar patterns yet? You can grab them in my website pattern shop HERE! Use the code “SereLunar” to get 15% off either or both patterns! Code is valid until Sunday 21st August Australian Eastern Standard time!

Happy hacking! 😉