Thursday, 8 April 2004

I've made several purses and bags out of high quality "quilt" type cottons, and I've faced the same challenge with them all: adding body to the purse without adding a lot of weight and/or stiffness. I want the bag to stand upright, without being artifically stiff. This means I have to add interfacing of some sort, otherwise the bag would just flop over.

The best solution I've found is to use a medium-weight cotton woven fabric (which I buy super cheap whenever I see it onsale -- I never pay more than $2.50 a yard for it), to which I fuse a heavy interfacing. I sandwhich this interfacing/fabric piece between the outer fabric and the lining of the bag. This creates a nice balance of weight, stiffness and flexibility that wears well.

The best interfacing I've found for this is Pellon 65. I can sew through it, although I do switch to a denim needle when I'm sewing through more than one layer of it.

For the Flying Diaper Bag, I used an interfacing called Shade Fuse (that I cannot find on-line) that is designed for use in making lampshades. It is really stiff. Too stiff. I had intended to do a lot of top-stitching on that bag, but I couldn't because even with a denim needle I could not sew through two layers of the fusible/fabric pieces. I have some left that I will probably use on some parts of future bags, but I don't plan to use it for a whole bag again.

Thanks for info. Your bags and purses have sparked my interest, too. I went looking in the library for some purse books and found one with good tips about purse innerds. The book is SIMPLY SENSATIONAL BAGS by Linda McGehee. Her purses are not my cup of tea but I liked her instructions for structure and support, i.e. interfacing the lining and using craft poly fleece as support. Also good tips on inner pockets.

      Quilty comment by Mary on 1 September 2004

Thanks for info. Your totes and bags have sparked my interest, also. I checked the library for their ideas and found SIMPLY SENSATIONAL BAGS by Linda McGehee. Her purses are not my cup of tea but she offers good ideas for structure and support, i.e. interfacing the lining and using craft poly fleece under the front fabric. Also good instructions on all sorts of pockets both inside and outside.

      Quilty comment by Mary on 1 September 2004