Wednesday 9 January 2013

Some bag making advice, please?

I have a few questions for you bag making experts out there. 

I'm planning on making this bag:


I have the pattern (obviously) and the cotton duck it requires for the interfacing.

The thing I'm not sure about is that it calls for mid-weight home dec fabric for both the lining and exterior. I'm not completely sure what I want to use to make it at this stage anyway, but I'd really like to use some of my Melody Miller cotton/linen blend fabric for both the exterior and interior. Would this work as is, do you think? It is a bit heavier than regular quilting cotton, but I'm not sure if it's heavy enough to work in this bag. The other option I'm considering is making the pieces QAYG using a combination of quilting cotton and linen/cotton blend - would this be a viable option?

Any and all advice would be really appreciated :o)

xx Jess  

PS - did you really think I'd stick to my FAL list without any distractions? I lasted a couple of days at least ;o)

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I'm not an expert (and far from it).. but I would say that a cotton/linen blend would work ! Especially if you use cotton duck in the bag.

So yes, I say you could totally try it !

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Anonymous said...

Sorry for that. I don't know what happened !

Chelsea said...

Amy Butler's home dec fabric is lighter weight than the Melody Miller fabric so the MM should definitely work. Can't wait to see what you do with it.

Heather said...

I have this pattern so I was looking at the instructions and I think you could easily use whatever you want. The exterior fabric gets sew to the cotton duck and that would give it more stability. You could always add a light weight woven fusible interfacing to the back of your exterior fabric as well.

Lisa in Port Hope said...

I go a lot by feel, so I would recommend that if you can take a scrap--about 4" square--and sew it to the duck as directed, you should be able to tell if it will give you the feel you want. I also would try trolling the Amy Butler flickr group for other bags and see if they have a blog review.
I made one Amy Butler bag and the super stiff interfacing was...challenging.

Jenelle said...

I agree with all the wise ladies above. :) If you find you want a little more support, a fusible woven interfacing is always an easy addition to make. AB's home dec fabric is flowier than lots of other home dec fabric so the cotton/linen is actually comparable I think.

Hannlib said...

I used all regular quilting cotton for mine and added some medium fusible interfacing to the lining fabric. The cotton duck gives great stability and I also added two layers of batting. I think anything goes in qayg for the exterior.

Angela Bullard said...

When I make my purses I always use cotton fabric with fusible fleece instead of home dec & cotton duck. It has always worked best for me and can be used like a batting if you want to quilt it. Good luck, I've had my eye on this pattern for awhile and would love to hear how it turns out!

Di said...

Well it seems as if you have plenty of advice already and I would either use interfacing or do QAYG. Di x

Lisa Sipes said...

You can make any quilting weight cotton into home dec weight by fusing lightweight interfacing to it.
And I refuse to use duck cloth or peltex or any other such nonsense in my bags anymore. They just become sooooo hard to sew. I love them, but they're difficult. Now I use ByAnnie's Soft & Stable. It's the best stuff in the world.

Newbie Jen said...

Oh, I can't wait to see what you do with this! Something marvelous, I'm sure!

barcord said...

Hi Jess. No advice from me, as you probably know more than I do. I do however, love a soft fabric for lining any bags I make. Thinking of you and the people of your country just now. Hope you are safe from the flames. xx

Nicky said...

Haha girl after my own heart! Focus Jess Focus! But I'm exactly the same two new projects started and a third in the thought process!

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