I love the internet. I don't know how I did any sewing or crafting before the internet. I admire the super smart folks that post sewing tutorials with written instructions and pictures on their blogs so we all can make lovely items to use. When I find a pattern I really like but need to modify, I don't mind taking those clever instructions and adjusting them to meet my needs. It seems like I have been doing this a lot lately.
I spent part of last Sunday modifying a water bottle carrier pattern that I found on one of those super smart blogs to accommodate a larger than 16.9 oz. bottle of water. This carrier will swallow my largest water bottle and it's perfect.
I had already used these instructions back in 2016 to make a regular size water bottle carrier for a normal 16.9 oz. plastic bottle like a Zephyrhills bottle. That water bottle carrier is still in use, but sometimes I want to carry more than 16.9 oz. of water and for that I need a bigger carrier.
When I made that regular size water bottle carrier in 2016, my daughter made one for herself, but she was thinking ahead and she modified the size so hers would be big enough for her big water bottle. I helped her make that water bottle carrier, but unfortunately I didn't take any notes on the modifications she made, so I had to start from scratch. That's one of the reasons I have been blogging about how I make my changes so I can just look them up in my blog.
I started with the instructions at this blog post:
Instruction for water bottle carrier.
I didn't bother to measure my bottle because I have two big bottles, a 21 oz Camelbak and a 32 oz. Contigo and I wanted this carrier to be big enough for either bottle. I figured whatever I ended up with would work fine for what I needed. Here are my modifications.
1. I didn't bother to piece the outside of the carrier with coordinating fabric like the blogger did. I hardly ever have coordinating fabric and I wanted to use my souvenir Hawaii fabric for these so I cut two pieces of fabric for the body of the carrier (the outside and the lining) 14" (width/around the bottle) x 12" (height/deep) or you could cut one long rectangle that is 28" x 12" and just fold it where the two pieces would be seamed. I also cut one piece of Insul-Brite 13" x 11" for the body of the carrier according to the instructions.
2. Since I didn't measure and I couldn't determine how big the circle bottom (2 pieces of fabric and one piece of Insul-Brite) had to be I cut mine at 8" in diameter which was way too big. I ended up trimming this down to about 4.5" in diameter after the body of the carrier was put together.
3. I followed the instructions for sandwiching and quilting the body of the carrier and the circle bottom. I sewed the body up to make a tube and I sewed a French seam here to enclose the edges. I measured the circle bottom and trimmed my large circle down so it would fit and I attached it according to the instructions.
4. This water bottle holder will be holding heavier weight with the larger bottles, so I made my strap from the fabric I used for the rest of the project. I think fabric straps are more comfortable than webbing and definitely stronger than ribbon. I cut two 3" strips the width of the fabric. I sew the short ends together to get one long strip, then I make the strap like the one in this tutorial:
Friendship Gift Bag Tutorial. This is how I make the straps for most of my bags, wristlets and totes. They are really sturdy. One other thing I did was to hem the two short ends of the strap that are being attached to the body of the carrier by turning them up before I topstitched each end. These straps are not enclosed and hemming keeps them neat. I trim this strap to be about 56" long, which measures about 26" from your shoulder (taking into account that I used an inch on each end to attach the strap to the carrier). You can make the strap as long or as short as you wish. If you find that after you attach the strap that it is too long, you can just tie a knot in it to shorten the length.
Those are my modifications and here is the final product Pictures of the bottles in the carrier and pictures of the bottles next to the carrier. I will definitely be making more of these.
This took me about 2 hours to make from cutting fabric (not my favorite part of sewing) to final stitch. That time includes finding the right color of thread to use, filling a bobbin, and moving kitties off my ironing board every time I had to use it. (LOL).
