Welcome to Day 1 of the Atlas Zipper Case Sew Along!
I’m so excited that you want to make the Atlas Zipper Case with me! I originally posted these Sew Along tips and tricks in November 2024 in conjunction with a Sew Along I hosted. I’m posting the daily assignments and bonus tips here to my blog for those who didn’t get a chance to join the Sew Along. You can find the Atlas Zipper Case pattern HERE and follow along with the Sew Along Blog posts to make your own!
The assignment for the Atlas Zipper Case Sew Along Day 1 is to cut everything out, then baste and quilt the Main and Lining fabric. Cutting everything out is pretty self explanatory, but I did want to mention a couple things. First, feel free to mix up your fabric selections and use additional prints from what is listed in the Supply Requirements if you’d like! For example, you can split the Lining and Binding fabrics up into two fat quarters each (instead of ½ yard each) to give more variety to your prints. Second, if you are using a directional fabric for your Main, Lining, or Accent fabrics, pay close attention to the dimensions and the diagram on the Cutting Instructions page. Everything in the pattern is written as width x height, so make sure you orient your directional prints accordingly.
One other note before we start: Whenever I’m quilting fabric for a bag, I almost always start off with a bigger size than necessary, then trim to size after quilting. The process of quilting often shrinks the panel (the denser the quilting, the greater the shrinkage), and sometimes the layers shift a little, too. The extra size is always built into my patterns, so no need to cut even larger than the Cutting Instructions given.
Now, on to basting our fabric!
PREPARE FOR BASTING
Before I start basting, I try to make sure that all of my layers are pressed really well. This will help everything lay smoother and you’ll be less likely to get puckers in the fabric when you quilt.
I’d even recommend pressing the batting or Soft and Stable (or other foam stabilizer–unless it’s fusible!) before layering. Both batting and Soft and Stable press well and having the wrinkles pressed out will really help all the layers stay flat.
BASTING
Basting is a way to temporarily hold layers of fabric together. We don’t want the layers to move around while we’re quilting, so we baste them for the best results.
There are many different methods of basting (pins, adhesive spray, sewing long stitches, etc.). I’d recommend trying a few out so you can figure out which method you like best.
I prefer to spray baste smaller projects with Odif 505, but I frequently use safety pins for larger projects.
PREPARE FOR QUILTING
Once I have my layers basted, I choose a side of the panel that I can start most of my quilting lines from and stitch a line along one of the edges (just 1/8″ away from the raw edge) to stabilize the three layers.
Even though we’ve already basted, if you start your machine quilting from that stitched line as much as possible, it will further help keep the layers from shifting.
MARKING QUILTING LINES
When I’m quilting a design that needs guides to follow, I like to use a Hera Marker to mark my lines (it only leaves an impression-not an actual ink mark). The dull side of a butter knife also works great!
There are many other ways to make guide lines (air/water erasable pens, strips of tape, etc.) or forgo the lines altogether and choose an organic design that doesn’t need lines to follow. If you’d like to see some of these other method in action, check out the video I shared on my Instagram account HERE.
QUILTING
To keep things easy when I quilt, I use the same thread and needle that I use for all of my general sewing projects (my thread of choice is Aurifil 50 wt and I like to use Organ 90/14 needles).
For machine quilting, I do like to increase my stitch length a little. A standard stitch length on my machine is 2.5 and I like to increase it to about 3.5 for quilting. You can play around with your machine’s settings to see what you prefer.
When quilting on my Juki sewing machine, I use a slim presser foot to quilt smaller projects. The Juki comes with a walking foot, however I’ve found that it doesn’t work really well (one of the machine’s only downfalls) and I prefer to use a regular presser foot. If I’m quilting a larger project then I get out my second machine (a Bernina) and use it with a walking foot. The walking foot can really help feed the layers through at the same speed and avoid puckering. If you have a walking foot, I’d generally recommend using it to quilt, or at least trying it out to see if it works better for quilting.
For this Atlas Zipper Case, I’m quilting a diamond design, using the 60 and 30 degree lines on my ruler. If you’re wanting some additional ideas for easy machine quilting designs, check out the Instagram video I posted HERE.
TRIM THE QUILTED PANEL
When you’re finished quilting, trim your quilted panels (both the Main Quilted Panel and the Accent Quilted Panels) to the size listed on page 4 of the Atlas Zipper Case pattern.
Those are my tips for Day 1! You can find the video that goes along with today’s assignment on my instagram account HERE.
Links for products from today’s tips:
Odif 505 Spray (click HERE)
Oliso Iron (click HERE)
Juki TL2000 Sewing Machine (click HERE)
Olfa Ruler (click HERE)
Hera Marker (click HERE)
Organ 90/14 needles (click HERE)
Thanks for sewing along with me!
Kristina