Roll Top Duffle

I have a bad habit of trying to make a new bag every time I go on a big trip. I find the challenge of designing, pattern making and sewing a prototype in a short period of time to be super fun. This duffle was born from that years ago. I was doing some traveling for work and shopping for reference samples and such. The need was for a bag that could pack light but would expand to my needs. This was my best solution to keep it simple, light and super robust. It’s had a handful of iterations, a few of which you can see below. The pattern has stayed largely the same. 

The pattern and construction of the bag is based around 3 main focus points. The first, is rolled down it needs to be TSA carry-on compliant. The second, is it needs to be made from as few pieces as possible to improve durability and waterproofness. I managed to keep this bag to 5 total pieces (not including webbing and zippers). The third focus point is it needs to be relatively simple to make. Though it has a dynamic and interesting form it has very few sewing operations and wastes next to no fabric as the pattern pieces can nestle together very well for production.