Welcome back to the Castell Day Bag Sew Along. It’s Day 4 and if you need to catch up, you can check the previous days below. Our bag is really taking shape by now, are you getting excited?!

Here’s the schedule:
Day 1: Getting started – cutting and fusing pieces
Day 2: Starting Exterior of bag 
Day 3: Finish Exterior of bag
Day 4: Make the Lining (that’s today!)
Day 5: Finish the bag!

These pockets look so impressive, but they’re super easy to make! Take 2 pocket lining pieces and place right sides together with zipper sandwiched between at the top and the zipper facing down. Some people may find it easier to use a basting tape, like Wonder Tape, to hold everything in place before sewing zippers. Once the tops of the lining pocket pieces and one side of the zipper is lined up, sew in place using a zipper foot. You may notice my zipper tape is much longer than the top of the pocket piece: for me this is a major benefit of making my own zippers. I will trim it later, but for now I don’t need to move the zipper pull out of the way as I’m sewing in my zipper. If you want to read more about making your own zippers, read my post here. 

Flip the pocket pieces so they are right sides together and press away from the zipper.

Topstitch along the pressed edge about 1/8″ away. Now we need to create the gathering for the pocket. To do this, we run a basting stitch (long stitch length) at the bottom of the pocket pieces. Make sure to leave a long thread at both ends.

Before we pull up our gathers, we are going to sandwich the other side of the zipper tape between the pocket middle and the pocket top. The pocket middle should be right side up and the pocket top should be wrong side up. If your fabric for pocket top is directional, make sure you’re placing it correctly, because we’re going to flip it up in the next step. For this step, make sure your zipper is now right side up. (Note: I’m sorry if my fabrics are confusing – I chose to make my pockets opposite fabrics of each other and switched pockets while taking step photos.)

Flip the pocket top up, press away from zipper and topstitch.

Now we create the gather in the pocket by very gently pulling on a single thread at one end of the bottom edge of the pocket. Since I’m right handed, I find it easiest to hold the threads in place on the left side, and pull gently on the right. You can gently move the fabric along the thread to smooth out the gathers, otherwise the fabric just bunches up at one end. You’ll want the bottom of the pocket to match the width of the Pocket Middle behind it. Don’t try too hard for this to be perfect, it will get sorted when it’s basted in place. Now pull in the zipper pull and baste the pocket to the Pocket Middle starting from the topstitching above the zipper.

Now attach the pocket bottom to (you guessed it) the bottom of the pocket. Again with this step, pay attention to the direction of your fabric, since it will be flipped down once it’s sewed on.

Turn down the pocket bottom and topstitch.

Now attach the lining side panels. Once they’re sewn, trim off any excess zipper tape.

Press away from center and topsitch if desired. Repeat with remaining lining pieces to create second lining half if you haven’t already.

Place both assembled lining panels right sides together. Clip or pin bottom together. Sew together but leave a turning gap in the middle about 6-8″ wide; to do this, I like to sew one continuous line but backstitch when I get to where I want my turning gap to be, then switch to a basting stitch for the length of the turning gap, and then back to my regular stitch length. 

Press the bottom seam open. Sew up side seams with a 1/2″ seam allowance.

With side seams open, box corners as you did with the exterior.

Here’s what it looks like so far…

That’s it for now! On Sunday we finish it all up! I’d love to see how you’re doing. Share with me on Instagram with #CastellSewAlong or in the Emmaline Sewing Patterns Group on Facebook and don’t forget to tag me @reecemontgomery so I can see. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to seeing you all again for Day 5, the final day.