Friday, October 19, 2018

WR Sewing 🌏 🏃🏼

What visits and serves in 11 countries in 11 months? They travel with everything in a backpack + daypack, and must be between the ages of 23 and 35. The World Race is a Christian faith-based mission trip. Our younger daughter is leaving on this adventure in January, 2019. But right now she and 125 young people are at training camp in Georgia, getting to know each other and practicing for the World Race.
Preparing for training camp takes a lot of planning and shopping--getting just the right gear, including a backpack that is comfortable, a tent, sleeping bag & mattress, plus innumerable other items. 

I've been sewing a few items for Susanna. First off has been packing cubes. I used this free tutorial by Melly Sews to make 3 of them. I had to alter the side panel to be cut at 50", as 46 1/2" was too small in my experience. 


I found waterproof ripstop fabric at SR Harris, a fabric warehouse in our city that has just about any fabric you can think of.

With Susanna's advice, I placed the zipper on the following packing cube in a more packable arrangement--starting at 1/3 on the back edge, around the side and ending at 2/3 on the front edge. She discovered clothes can be packed tighter with the zipper opening in this fashion.

I sewed a cosmetic bag for her using the Zeppelin Pouch pattern by Sew Sweetness. Susanna picked out the fabric and I laminated it with Slicker by Lazy Girl Designs.

This is my third Zeppelin pouch. I've discovered it works better by adding sturdy tabs at either end of the zipper:

One of the final steps of making the Zeppelin pouch is to turn the whole thing right side out through a 4" opening. The fabric and laminate disconnected quite a bit after this maneuver. Susanna carefully pressed it back together again.

I lined this Zeppelin pouch with more waterproof ripstop:

I also made two shoe bags from the ripstop plus some drawstring cord locks. (No photo-I thought I took one!)

Susanna has a compression pillow that goes from a very small package to a nice fluffy pillow in a couple of minutes. I made pillowcases for her compression pillow using this Craftsy tutorial on sewing a pillowcase for any size pillow. That was very helpful as her pillow is not a standard size. 

She chose the fabrics. The pillowcase on the left is from the Zuma fabric line by Tula Pink. It reminded us of The Big Wave, a famous Japanese woodblock print. It even has a little sailboat in the center of the wave:

The second pillowcase is made from Naomi Collection, a Japanese line that I purchased at Yuzawaya in Tokyo.

There will no doubt be rearranging after training camp. It is a trial run for the long race and a chance to try out one's gear and see what is working well for others, also.

Here's a video Susanna made in preparation for training camp, including a before and after of her compression pillow:
If you can't see it, go to her YouTube channel here. You can read her blog and catch all her updates and videos here.
  
Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy
   
Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, Friday Foto Fun, TGIFF, Crazy Mom Quilts.

19 comments:

  1. Nancy, this post is so interesting! I've never heard of the World Race, and I think it's wonderful that your daughter is getting to participate. I think I need some of those packing cubes myself - it's such a cool idea! Susanna's video was fun - I didn't know a sleeping bag could be compressed into such a small bag!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an amazing journey and adventure your daughter will be taking! I couldn't imagine living out of a backpack for a week let alone a year! It looks like the two of you have collaborated together very well. I'm in awe of your skills with each bag!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What an adventure is in store for Susanna! Thanks for the video! Wow, those bags are amazing...sewing with rip stop is not an easy task!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True--ripstop is a super slippery fabric to sew with!!! It helps to use wonder clips. No pins, as pins leave holes.

      Delete
  4. I, too, have never heard of World Race, but it sounds so interesting! When I saw the first photo of your daughter, I wondered what in the world you could have sewn for her - BUT WOW! I'm so impressed by your packing cubes! Your daughter will really cherish having such wonderful handmade items with her. Good job, mom!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wishing, hoping, but most of all praying that your daughter has a fun-filled, happy, successful, adventurous, and safe time and also for peace and security for you, her mom. I loved seeing the video of the equipment. She she is courageous to embark on this adventure with no camping experience. Oh, and I saw Ric Rac in the background!!! Thanks for sharing and keep us updated on her adventures.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yikes! What an adventure your daughter is undertaking! Especially without a lot of camping or backpacking experience behind her. It is so smart of the team to do a practice run. Do you know how long she leaves her camp set up each time? I hope she isn't changing on a daily basis? That would be so much packing and unpacking. I look forward to hearing about her progress and hope you will share a bit of it with us!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At training camp they have to pitch their tent every evening and take it down every morning. That gives them some good practice. Last night they slept in the "airport simulator room", complete with lights on all night and airplane noises. When they're actually on the race they don't use their tents every day--they have home stays or stay in youth hostels or just sleep in churches. It's different in every situation. Subscribe for her updates here: https://susannabekedam.theworldrace.org/

      Delete
  7. These are such great things to make for your daughter to take along with her. You did an amazing job of sewing all these things for her and I'm sure she will think of you and home often while packing and unpacking.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, what a trip for your daughter, wishing her all the best. I think there is nothing you can sew, I dub you the 'Pouch Queen', hehe.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great job, Nancy, I know you have been really busy with so much, but you pulled off these sewing projects with ease! I've never heard of that laminating material, how cool is that?! Let me know if you need more ripstop, I have some/lots that I haven't used and don't know what to do with (story behind that). I'm excited to hear how her training went!

    ReplyDelete
  10. That looks like a great setup! What an adventure she will have, with plenty of beautiful mama-mades to help :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow, they look so great! The packing cubes look so professional, and of course your minikins are always fabulous. I know she'll have a great time!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great projects, I am sure that they will be well used during your daughter's travels. Thanks for linking them up to TGIFF

    ReplyDelete
  13. Susanna is so fortunate to have such a talented Mom!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Nancy, this is such an unbelievable experience for your daughter. Looking forward to you sharing some of her travel stories.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow did you ever do a fabulous job on these accessories! I love the wave print, never even saw the sailboat, love that! That Zeppelin pouch is really cool, and I love Lazy Girl Designs. :-) ephdra at gmail dot com (still not fixed)

    ReplyDelete
  16. It look like a lot of work to get ready.
    Great to see all that you made that will be so useful.
    Good luck.

    ReplyDelete
  17. WOW! That looks like such a great experience! So much fun! I also never thought about making my own packing cubes, that is such a great idea!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...