These instructions will help you create a pair of bicycle panniers that will comfortably fit a bicycle rack that measures approximately 17” by 5 ½” (See the pictures with the panniers on the white bicycle). If your bicycle rack is smaller than this, you may need to change the pannier size measurements to compensate for your bicycle rack. See the photos at the end of this tutorial for a closer look at how to attach the panniers and how they look on a smaller sized bicycle rack (See the pictures with the panniers on the silver bicycle). The final dimensions of each single pannier are 13” tall by 4” wide. CUT OUT THE PATTERN PIECES. To use the pattern pieces, cut out both sections of bag pattern. Overlap the sections at the large, black dots and tape them together to make the bag pattern.
1. • Front/Back Main panel • Flap panel • Gusset • Large Connector Flap Piece • Small Connector Flap Piece • Bag Connector Piece Panel 2. CUT OUT ALL OF THE PIECES FROM THE FABRIC USING THE PATTERN PIECES. Tip: You can mark each cut piece with a piece of tape and a marker so that you can differentiate the pieces. This is especially helpful in differentiating the main panels and the flap panels, as they are very close in size. A. From the exterior fabric (a sturdy, canvas material is probably the best option as this will be possibly be exposed to the elements) • Cut 4 main panels on the fold* • Cut 2 flap panels on the fold* • Cut 2 gusset pieces on the fold* • Cut 1 large connector flap piece • Cut 1 small connector flap piece • Cut 2 bag connector piece panels B. From the interior lining fabric • Cut 4 main panels on the fold* • Cut 2 flap panels on the fold* • Cut 2 gusset pieces on the fold* • Cut 1 large connector flap piece • Cut 1 small connector flap piece 1 C. From the interfacing fabric (the interfacing is optional, but remember, if you do not use it, your bags may sag on the wheel side and may rub against your bicycle wheels) I recommend using a stiff interfacing such as Peltex #70 or a comparable heavyweight interfacing. It is your choice whether to use an iron‐on option or a sew‐in option. • Cut 4 main panels on the fold* • Cut 2 flap panels on the fold* • Cut 2 gusset pieces on the fold* • Cut 1 large connector flap piece • Cut 1 small connector flap piece • Cut 1 bag connector piece panels D. From the hook side Velcro (the harder side) • 2” pieces – cut 8 • 5” pieces – cut 2 E. From the loop side Velcro (the softer side) • 2” pieces – cut 4 • 3 ½” pieces – cut 2 • 4” pieces – cut 2 • 5” pieces – cut 2 3. If you using interfacing, fuse or sew the interfacing to the wrong side of each matching external section. If you are sewing the interfacing in, try to use a small seam width such as 1/4” or whatever is comfortable for you, since some of the seams used later will be fairly small and you don’t want your interfacing stitches to be seen on the final product. I have used red thread throughout this tutorial to help you see my stitches better, but if I were to sew it again, I would use a more subdued thread color. Please notice that I did not use interfacing in my panniers. Again, if I were to make it again, I would make sure to use heavyweight interfacing to avoid the possibility of having the bag rub against the rear wheels of the bicycle. 4. I began my sewing with the connector flap piece. First I vertically pinned two of the 2” hook pieces of Velcro onto the right side of the long, straight edge of the small connector flap piece. I measured in approximately 1 ½” in from either side of the flap piece and centered each piece of Velcro. I stitched the Velcro in place. 2 5. Next I took the coordinating interior lining piece of the small connector flap and, with right sides together, I pinned the lining to the flap. I left an opening on the rounded edge of the piece so that I could turn it right side out after I was done stitching. I then stitched along my pinning lines. 6. I trimmed the upper corner edges (careful not to cut through my stitching) and I made some relief cuts around the rounded edge so that these edges would come out better when I turned entire piece right side out. 7. I used my ever handy, extra‐long forceps that I purchased at Harbor Freight to clamp onto one of the inside corners of the piece and turn it right side out through the opening that I had left unstitched. I also used these forceps to help push the same corner edges out after I had gotten the piece turned right side out. 8. Now I turned in the opening, pinned it and then edge stitched about ¼” around the entire piece to give it a finished look. 9. I now moved on to the large connector flap pieces and pinned the external and internal lining pieces together, with the right sides facing each other. I left the entire straight edge of the piece open so that I could turn the piece right side out through this opening. 10. I stitched along my pinning lines, and then I made some relief cuts similar to the ones I had made on the small connector flap piece that I had just finished. I used my forceps to turn the large connector piece right side out. Then I edge stitched ¼” around the same three sides that I had just stitched, leaving the 3 same opening that I had used to turn it right side out. 11. To finish the entire connector flap piece, I pinned the small connector flap piece onto the large connector flap piece, with the interior lining sides facing each other. I then sewed the small connector piece onto the large piece using a ¼” seam around the three sides of the small connector flap piece, making sure to leave the straight edge open. I basically made a small pocket out of these two pieces. If you are following along, yours should kind of resemble a pot holder. 12. You can put the connector flap piece off to the side for a while, because now I will show you how to make the actual pannier bag pieces. First, horizontally center and sew 2 of the 2” hook Velcro pieces onto one of the external front/back pieces. I spaced my pieces of Velcro 4” from the bottom curved edge of the bag front and 4” from the side of the bag front. I repeated these measurements for the other side of the bottom of the bag front. I then repeated these same steps for the second bag front. I was then left with two bag front pieces that each had 2 pieces of hook Velcro sewn near the bottom edge of them. 13. Now I had to attach the gusset to the front bag piece that I had just sewn the Velcro onto. It may be a little difficult to see in the pictures, but the easiest way that I found to ensure that you are attaching the gusset evenly onto the front bag piece is to fold the gusset material in half (similar to when you cut it out) with the wrong sides together. Now fold the front bag piece in half (again, similar to when you cut it out) with the wrong sides together. Now match up the centers of these two pieces, with the right sides together, and place a pin in the center edge to hold them. You will need to have the gusset lower edge and the front bag piece lower edges together. The picture illustrates it much better than I can verbally describe it. 4 14. Once the center pin is in place, you simply pin the rest of the lower edge and the side edges of the gusset and the front bag piece together. You will have to make some relief cuts into the gusset material to make it fit around the rounded edge of the front bag piece. Don’t make these cuts too deep since you will be using around a ½” seam to stitch these pieces together and you don’t want holes in those edges. As you can see from the pictures, I used a lot of pins around my edges, since I am still not overly confident in sewing around edges like these. I feel like once you get over confident, then you go to sew it and you end up with a bunch of wrinkles or big gaping holes. 15. You’re going to repeat steps 13 and 14 for the other external front bag piece. You will also need to sew the internal lining front bag pieces to the internal lining gussets using steps 13 and 14. I found it much easier to sew all of these pieces around the same time since you are basically just repeating the exact same steps. It seems to go by a little faster if you set it up in a bit of an assembly line type of situation since you are able to repeat the same types of stitches and you don’t have to go back later and try to remember how to sew a particular piece. 16. Once you have the front bag pieces sewn onto the gussets (for both the external bag pieces and the internal lining pieces), you will now attach the back bag pieces onto the gussets. It may be a little difficult to see from the pictures, since I used the red lining pieces to illustrate this, but the easiest way that I found to attach these pieces is to first lay the wrong side of the front bag piece flat on your work surface. 5 You will then fold the gusset part onto the front bag piece, similar to how you had it pinned initially when you sewed the two pieces together. The difference here, though, is that you will fold the bottom edge of the gusset away from the front bag piece. You are basically trying to fold the sewn pieces almost in an origami type of way to find the center of the gusset. If you have it folded similar to the picture, the right side of the gusset should now be exposed along the bottom of the bag, in a sort of flattened upside down triangle. Find the center of the exposed, right side of the gusset and this should be the center of the gusset, assuming that your other folded edges are all folded down nice and flat. Now take the back side of the bag, with the right side facing down, and line up the bottom edge of the bag with the bottom edge of the gusset, where you just found the center of the gusset. Make sure to line up the sides of the back side of the bag with the sides of the front side of the bag. Place a pin in the center (or as close to the center as possible) of the back of the bag and the gusset. From here you should be able to pin the rest of the edges of the back side of the bag to the gusset in a similar fashion as you did in step 14. 6 An important note here: when you are pinning the interior lining pieces, you will need to leave an opening in the bottom, center of the back. The opening will probably need to be about 4 to 5 inches wide so that you can turn the entire bag right side out. Other than this difference between the exterior and interior bag pieces, you will be following step 14 to stitch the bag pieces together. 17. Now that you have your bag pieces sewn, it’s time to put the interior and exterior of them together. To do this, you will need to turn the interior lining right side out so that the raw edges of the seams are on the inside. Keep the exterior bag turned wrong side out so that the raw edges of the seams are on the outside. Now you will place the bag lining inside the exterior of the bag so that the right sides of both pieces are facing each other. 18. To pin the bag, begin with one of the corners of the bag and line up the interior lining seam with the exterior bag seam. You will need to open up the raw edges of the seams on both the lining and the exterior and you will need to make sure that the open edge of the bag parts are lined up to the best of your ability. Mine didn’t line up exactly, probably due to slight differences in size when I cut the material or when I sewed some of the pieces together. As long as these differences aren’t too large, you should be fine. Try to line the edges up as much as you can and you can trim the excess parts either before you sew the edges or after if you are confident that the difference won’t interfere with your seam allowance. 19. Once you get one corner pinned, continue pinning the remaining 3 corners of the bag. From there you can more accurately pin the rest of the bag. You may need to stretch the material a little to get it to work with you. When I pinned the long edge of the bag, I began by lining up the edges by holding onto the two corners that I had already pinned, and then I put a pin in the center of the long edge. I know this sounds like a lot of explanation and work just to pin something, but trust me, you don’t want to get the majority of it pinned, or even worse, sewn only to realize that there is a huge bubble of excess fabric somehow left at the end. 7 20. Once you finish pinning your bags, use about a ½” seam allowance to sew the edges together. 21. When you have finished sewing the bag pieces together, reach into the bag and pull the lining out. Then reach your hand into the opening in the lining and pull the exterior of the bag through the lining opening. Once you have the bag pulled right side out, you will need to push the lining back into the exterior of the bag and pin the edge of the bag opening so that you can create an edge stitch to give the bag a more polished look. The edge stitch should be about a ¼” seam allowance. 22. You can set the bottom bag parts to the side for now while you work on the bag flap. First you will need to sew the loop sections of Velcro onto the interior lining panels so that they will match up with the hook sections of Velcro on the bottom part of the bag. Based on my measurements, you will need to horizontally center and attach each of the 2” sections of loop Velcro at least 4” in from the outer edge of the flap and approximately 2 ¾” up from the bottom of the flap. 23. Next you will attach the flap lining and exterior pieces together in the same manner that you made the large connector flap piece in steps 9 and 10 where you placed the interior and exterior pieces together, right sides together. You will only be sewing three sides of the flap, just like in steps 9 and 10, then you will turn the pieces right side out and then edge stitch the pieces. 24. You can now set the flap pieces off to the side while you finish the connector piece that will hold both bag sides together. Place one of the external connector piece panels on your working surface. You will now sew the final 2 pieces of 2” hook Velcro onto one of the short ends of the connector panel. You should vertically center and sew each piece of Velcro at least 2” in from the outer edge and flush with the bottom of the connector panel. 8 25. Next I found that if you place each of the 3 ½” pieces of loop Velcro onto their corresponding 2” piece of hook Velcro that you just attached, you don’t need to pin them in place. You will need to let about ¼” of the 3 ½” loop Velcro pieces overlap the bottom edge of the connector panel (see picture). This ensures that there won’t accidentally be a gap between the two pieces of Velcro on the finished piece. 26. On the opposite short end of the connector panel, you will now need to pin the connector flap that you finished at the beginning of this tutorial. Much like the previous step, if you line up the 4” pieces of loop Velcro with their corresponding 2” sections of hook Velcro on the small part of the connector flap, you will not need to pin them in place. The long, tail end of the 4” sections of Velcro should stick out past the open edge of the large connector flap piece (see picture). Once you have the Velcro pieces in place on the connector flap, you can place it, Velcro side down, onto the short edge of the connector panel. Center the flap on the short edge and overlap the short edge of the connector panel with the open edge of the connector flap by about ¼”. This will ensure a good connection between the two pieces. Pin the flap onto the connector panel. 27. Now you will add the final pieces of Velcro onto the connector panel. I attached the pair of 5” hook and loop sections to each other so that when I placed them horizontally across the width of the connector panel, there was about a ¼” overlap on either side of the connector panel. I then pinned the attached pieces of Velcro approximately at the 5” and the 11” marks along the length of the connector panel. With all of the pieces of Velcro either pinned or sewn onto the connector panel, I placed the other connector panel on top of it, with right sides facing. I made sure to leave about a 2 to 3” gap between two of the 5” pieces of Velcro on one side of the panel so that I could turn the entire panel right side out after I finished sewing it. 9 28. After I sewed the connector panel pieces together using a ½” seam allowance, I trimmed the excess Velcro pieces that were sticking out and I trimmed the corners of the panel. I turned the panel right side out, pinned the opening closed and then used a ¼” edge stitch to complete the connector panel. 29. Now it’s time to put the entire bag together. Please bear with me on this part because it is a little hard to describe. Hopefully this description, in combination with the pictures, should help you. First lay the bottom part of the bag down onto your work surface with the opening facing you and the side with the Velcro sewn on it on the bottom, touching the work surface. Next place the connector panel on top of the bottom part of the bag, with the side that has all of the Velcro attachments on the bottom. Try your best to center the connector panel on top of the back, bottom part of the bag and line up the edges. The top layer of this bag sandwich will be one of the flap panels. You will place it with the lining side up and you will also need to try to center it on top of the back, bottom part of the bag and line it up with the other edges of the connector panel and the bottom bag part. Pin all three layers and use a ½” seam allowance. 10 30. Once you have the flap, connector panel and bottom bag parts sewn together, place the bag back in the position you had it in when you pinned the three layers together with the flap on top. Now flip the flap down/towards you. Use a ¼” seam allowance to reinforce the flap attachment (see picture). 31. You are now going to attach the other bag to the connector panel. Using the same theory as in step 29, lay the remaining bottom bag part down onto your work surface and center the connector panel on top of it. Center and align it with the bag, just like in step 29. Next, place the 11 remaining flap panel on top, again in the same manner as in step 29, making sure to center and align it with the other two layers. Pin and sew. 32. Repeat step 30 with the flap that you just attached. 33. One more major step left. You are going to pin the upper, inner corners of the bag together and stitch about an inch in. What this will do is help to keep the bag from sagging open at the top. I used my machine to sew these, but you can sew them by hand if you would like. 12 34. Finally, don’t forget to slip stitch the opening you still have in your interior bag lining (from when you turned the bottom bag part right side out). 35. The only thing left is to attach your new, stylish, and handmade panniers to your bicycle rack and enjoy! 13 Larger Bicycle Bag Frame (approximately 17” x 5.5”) 14 15 Smaller Bicycle Bag Frame (approximately 14” x 5”) 16 To use templates: Cut out both sections of bag pattern. Overlap the sections at the large, black dots and tape them together to make the bag pattern. Pannier Gusset (left half) Cut 2 External Cut 2 Internal Lining Cut 2 Interfacing Pannier Gusset (right half) Center on Fold Pannier Connector Piece (left half) Pannier Connector Piece (right half) Cut 2 External Center on Fold (right half) Cut 2 External Pannier Flap Piece Cut 2 Internal Lining Cut 2 Interfacing Center on Fold Cut 4 Interfacing Cut 4 Internal Lining Cut 4 External (left half) Pannier Front/Back Piece Center on Fold Pannier Front/Back Piece (right half) Center on Fold Pannier Front Flap – Large Cut 1 External Cut 1 Internal Lining Cut 1 Interfacing Pannier Front Flap – Small Cut 1 External Cut 1 Internal Lining Cut 1 Interfacing