Sewing Technical Fabrics with ReFasten

As a gal who loves to create, I wear many hats—apparel sewist, quilter, knitter, painter, crocheter…and now, a budding gear maker! Ive made a handful of bags over the years including some waxed canvas basket bags and tool rolls for my husband’s cycling shop, but this project is materially the most technical I’ve made to date.

ReFasten provided the materials used for this project in exchange for a review of their products. This blog post reflects my honest opinion.

Refasten is a Canadian based shop offering technical fabrics, notions, and patterns for home sewists. They kindly sent me materials to play around with, and I wanted to show how these fabrics can be utilized by the average sewist who may be new to technical fabrics.

After chatting with the folks at ReFasten, I decided to make a zippered tote bag. While these fabrics are certainly ideal for outdoorsy gear like day packs and bike bags, they also work well for accessories that could benefit from water and wear resistance, even if they’re not necessarily being used on a rugged adventure. For me, a tote bag that’s sturdy, water resistant, and easy to wipe down is an essential as a mom of four kids. This bag is great for picnics, beach days, and even fits nicely in our cargo bike’s basket.

I used the Kaland Weekender Tote by Sotak Handmade for my bag. There are dozens upon dozens of tote patterns out there, but this one is a really good size for lugging all the things, has a zipper closure and several pockets, and I knew that the quality of the pattern would be excellent after having made a couple of other Sotak Patterns.

The Kaland Weekender has an exterior zip pocket, an interior zip pocket, and three interior elasticized slip pockets. Its a generous size at 16''W x 14'H' x 6’’D. I also like that its a horizontal design—I’m not a fan of vertical tote bags because its just more trouble to reach things at the bottom. The design also lends itself to color blocking, which made combining neon, jewel tone, and neutral colors really fun for this bag.

For the outer fabric, I chose the Ecopak™ EPX200 in Fuchsia, Bright Orange, and Coyote Brown. This fabric is made from recycled polyester with a blue cross ply and a ripstop backing. Its really strong and water resistant, but still easy to sew. The face is smooth but not slippery like some synthetic fabrics can be, so I’d definitely consider it a great choice for those new to sewing with technical fabrics.

While the Ecopak™ EPX200 doesn’t have to be lined, I decided to pop in a lining as designed. I used UltraGrid™ in Black Beauty for my lining, particularly because I liked the look of the contrasting white ripstop grid. UltraGrid™ is a lightweight fabric that is also water resistant and tear resistant thanks to the ripstop weave. While some nylon fabrics can be pretty slippery, this one is pretty easy to work with, and even though its lightweight enough for a bag lining, its still substantial enough to use for lots of other bags on its own.

I was also able to source all of the zippers and webbing from ReFasten. They have bunches of hardware and notions for virtually any project you can imagine—clips, buckles, cord locks, adjusters, spacers, elastic, seam sealers…if you’ve seen it on gear at REI, chances are ReFasten will have it to DIY your own. Lastly they also have a handful of patterns, most of which look like an excellent introduction into technical sewing.

I’m really pleased with the quality of the materials I received from ReFasten and look forward to trying out more gear projects with their products!

If you’re like me and are not super familiar with some of the technical fabrics out there, I’ve got another blog post that goes over several of the other fabrics ReFasten sells. Since it can be hard to visualize materials when shopping online, I go over eight of their fabrics so you can get an idea of how they feel and where you can use them, from the perspective of an apparel sewist.

Thank you, ReFasten, for encouraging me to dive deeper into gear making—and my cycling husband thanks you too!

More to check out:

Cargo bike: Madsen Bucket Bike with E-Assist and throttle

Joey’s bike shop: Slow & Steady Bikes and Goods located in Norfolk, VA