Tropical Bag

What do you think of this zingy fabric? This bundle came courtesy of Minerva Crafts. For newbies, I am part of their bloggers network. I have the benefit of choosing something lovely from their site in return for making it up and writing about it. Their bloggers network page is full of a huge variety of makes from the 20 or so bloggers who make up the network.

6 months from now I shall hopefully be running up some skinny capri trousers in this tropical stretch cotton but that is far beyond my current capabilities.

For now I shall settle with another bag!

Do you see a trend? I love bags.

Wedding bags

White honeymoon bag

Crochet garden twine bag

Crochet linen clutch

Crochet and denim purse

Divided project bag

I’ve found that the trick to making a successful fabric bag is in the highly accurate cutting and strict adherence to  the specified seam allowance. It is also sooooo important to use the correct interfacing.  A floppy bag just reeks ‘homemade’!

I have learnt that generally you should use more, or a heavier weight of, interfacing/fleece than a pattern recommends.

For every bag I make I religiously refer to this article on the U Handbag site. It details every sort of bag you might make along with the recommended interfacing, both fusible and sew-in.

I used the cover pattern from my bag making book, Bags, the Modern Classics by Sue Kim.

Obviously the pattern did not specify a stretch cotton. I chose it purely for the print.

The pattern recommended the use of fusible interfacing to both the outer fabric and the lining. Referring to U Handbag site, I beefed this up with some heavy weight fusible (one side) fleece which I adhered to the outer fabric (on top of the interfacing) once I had made up the front section of the bag.

There were 8 pieces of outer fabric and 3 lining pieces, along with multiple interfacing pieces to cut out. This took the bulk of the time in making the bag. It came together really quickly and I was very happy with my top stitching, once I had changed to a fresh needle.

The iron on interfacing reduced the ‘stretch’ in the fabric as I had hoped but I used my walking foot attachment at all times to prevent waves forming in the stretch cotton.

I knew as soon as I had created these little pleats, that I was onto a winner.

Can you imagine this with a long black maxi dress somewhere on a beach in Thailand?

Tropical bag

That’ll be me in 5 weeks time.

Jealous? (Well it will be my honeymoon)

Love, Lucie xx