Pop Quiz: notching challenge

In keeping with the recent theme of notching maps (part 2), do you recall the bag series I’d published maybe two years ago? You can go to these search results and scroll down for lots of pictures. Today I want to use the back side of the bag as a notching challenge (image at right).

Figuring out where to place the notches on these pattern pieces is more difficult than you might think. In fact, those who have taken a class with me will recognize this challenge right away.

I have provided a sample pattern of the style, cheating would be to look at this one (cheating is encouraged). If you are confident and want to give yourself a bigger work out, use this one. Either way, you’ll need larger pieces to work with so that file is here.

You can print these pieces, lay them out and figure out where and how they fit together. Keep in mind that these pieces match exactly so if seams aren’t lining up, you have the wrong piece. Which is the point of all this. You need to design a notching system that will make joining these pieces error proof.

You can post your results to the web or send me an attached file and I will link to it. Extra credit will be given for those who can indicate how these seams should be trued (as it stands, no piece has seam allowance).

Above all, your notching design should be logical and follow a coherent pattern. Good luck everyone!

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7 comments

  1. Lisa Blank says:

    This is a fantastic challenge!

    I had fun playing with it in Paint on my lunch break. I’m not submitting mine because I know some of my notches are not quite right, but I don’t have time to play with it further.

    I’m looking forward to seeing the answer!

  2. Kathleen says:

    Oh my. I’ve had zero submissions. Usually by now I’ve had several. Perhaps I should mock up some options and let folks vote on which are better?

  3. Lisa Blank says:

    Perhaps I should mock up some options and let folks vote on which are better?

    That would certainly cut down on OUR time to work on the quiz but would mean extra work for you.

    BTW, are double notches allowed? When I played with it a little, I only used single notches, and that gets tricky.

  4. Kathleen says:

    Re: double notches. If those will solve your quandary, go for it (the one I made does). This bag has no “front” or “back” so the double notch convention doesn’t hold.

    There is one goal and one rule.
    The goal is to ensure that no piece can be misaligned to be sewn improperly.
    The rule is to use as few notches as possible.

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