The making of Gatorbag

Well, here begins our very first crafting project.

I made myself a 'gatorbag' in September (or October~ ) And now on Thursday (yesterday) a classmate of mine asked me to make her a black version of mine. So. I accepted and decided to record the making process in photos. To show everyone it's not as difficult as it seems.

First We need a pattern. Sketch down the rough design on cheap paper. Go wild if you have to.


Since I already have made one before, I have an example of the finished product, which is this:

A sexy beast, no?

The most important part of the pattern making is to make the head area big enough to fit into the bag clasps. If it's too big, well. It wont fit. And if it's too small, it's not gonna reach into the clasp sides.


Next thing one has to do is to cut the pattern open.
Before you cut it open to strips, make a copy of the whole body. It's to be named the BELLY.
Then cut the first one into strips. If you fold the body in half and cut the strips then, it can help you to make the strips exactly the same.
Make sure you'll be able to tell what is what later on. Name the strips.


Now we take out the materials. I'm going all black with this one. Cloth for the outside, the inside and thread for sewing it all together.


Place the patterns on the outside cloth. Mark down their outline with chalk and also add 1 cm more around the whole pieces.


Then cut them out along the outside lines. The material under the smallest strips is two layered. so while you cut out once, you get two pieces instead of one.


Now to make the zigzags on it's back, we need to measure the length of the gaps between the strips. In my case, the spine is 14,2 cm and the other line is 15 cm.



On a clean paper (the cheap kind of paper again ) mark down the lengths of the zigzags and with a ruler draw them on the paper. The triangles should get smaller as they near the end of the gatorbag/ the tail tip.

When you're ready, cut out the zigzag patterns.

Place them on the cloth, trace with chalk. Remember, you need to have two layers of cloth for each zigzag line. Don't bother cutting the cloth smaller right now. You can do it when you've finished sewing the zigzags.

When you're sewing the zigzag things first sew one line, and when you get to the tip, halt the machine and make sure the needle is in the cloth. Then raise the presser foot and turn the cloth to the new direction. Make each seam straight!


Tada~ One done. Now finish the rest.


When you're done, you can cut out the excess cloth. Leave some spare along the seams so that it wont rip when you try to turn it inside out. And make small slits in the places, where I made the red marks. Dont cut the thread though!


Turn it inside out!


You can get the tips to come out when you fiddle in it with a needle. (See, the first gatorbag keeps his eye on things... sharp fellow)


Alright, let's continue with the joining of the body. place the zigzag thing on the right side of the side strip. Fasten it with some stitches.


Now add the spine strip on it with the right side down. Make sure the lines you made after the paper pattern line up.


This is what it's inside looks like right now.


Sew the pieces together along the line.


Now you can look at the other side a bit better. (old gator is there again. I think he's up to something)


When you want to connect the two side-spine pieces along the spine line, make sure there are no other pieces in the way. Place the zigzag thing between the two bigger pieces just like you did while making them.


Sew them together and there you have it, most of the upper side of the gator bag is done.


Trim the excess cloth from the underside.


Now to attach the head. Make sure the outlines you made with the chalk are visible.


Stitch it together along the line. And then sew it through along the line on the sewing machine.


Embroider the eyes when done.

Next you have to join together the back and the belly. Only sew together the parts below the head. So that the bag clasps have a place to go to.


Turn it inside out for a bit to inspect what you've made.


Then we take the cloth meant for the inside layer. Again, only sew to the part where the head area begins. And leave an opening for later ( on the tail somewhere) so that we can turn it outside out again.

Sew the inside layer together and trim the excess cloth.


Then we place the head pieces together like this:

Both layers are inside out.

Then through the hole you left in the tail you can turn it outside out again. Then you close the hole in the tail. I stitched the two layers together temporarily to make sure I can sew it so that it will stay in place.


Removed the white thread and inserted the gator into the bag clasps.


Here she is showing off her shiny mouth, ready to snap on my fingers ;;T AT

And a shot from the top.

And there. We're done.

I hope you enjoyed this. Leave me a note or mail me when you make your own!