With this bag I tried something new for the interfacing. I used
Soft and Stable for the first time. This product is a thin foam (about 1/8” thick) with a lightweight fabric adhered to both sides.
This product doesn’t have to be quilted and it will keep the purse or bag from sagging. It is easy to cut and easy to sew through, most of the time. The only problem I found was when I had many layers to sew through – it was rather thick and hard to get my feed dogs to feed it through and also my titanium 90 sharp needle wouldn't go through at times. I am thinking that pattern should be simple with not too many layers stitched together at the same time to avoid this problem.
I made corded trim to add to several different places on this bag. Cording is easy to make with the zipper foot. I have a cording foot but it works better with larger cord so opted to use the zipper foot and it worked just fine. I always cut my fabric wider than I need then trim my strip after stitching. I did cut the fabric on the bias as I didn’t know if I would be using the cording on curves and bias will go around curves better than straight fabric.
Here are the flap, front and back partly done. As you can see I am using the lime green as an accent but the bag is mostly black and white. I inserted some of that cording covered with the lime green fabric between the two black fabrics on the flap. I really like the way it just pops.
The back has a strip of lime fabric on the center of the zippered pocket and the front piece that is finished is going to be a pocket with no closure but will be hidden under the flap of the bag. This bag has taken me a while to make as I just have not had much time to sew lately.
What a two weeks – last Thursday night I drove to a town 1 1/4 hours away and gave a program to the quilt guild there on my doll beds and miniature quilts. It was great and so much fun to share my quilts with other quilters. This guild has lots of new members, I was surprised at how many members had only joined with in the last couple of years. It seemed like there were a lot of younger women too which is so great to see. We need all ages but it is important to attract younger people to the art of quilting to keep it going.
Told you all about the party we were having at our house on Saturday. John did help me clean house and it took us most of a day to get finished. I really don’t think he realized how long it takes to get everything ready for a group of people to visit. It sure was nice to not have to do everything to get ready for this party. We had a fun time and the food was excellent!
Monday night I had to give a program to a group of ladies and it was on the author Barbara Kingsolver. I love reading her work and it was nice to be able to share my enthusiasm with others. I think I have read all of her works of fiction or at least most of them. I have read "The Poisonwood Bible", "The Bean Trees", "Pigs in Heaven", "Animal Dreams", and her last novel "The Lacuna" and I loved them all!
Tomorrow night I will be giving the program for my quilt guild on Tips and Tricks for Bag/Purse Making. I have 15 fabric bags to show – no I did not make them all myself. My sister made 2 and friends made 3 but I have been busy trying to make bags with different zippers, different straps, etc. since last fall. I have made step out samples and have a hand out typed up so think I am ready for this program. I do love giving programs as it forces me to find out more about a subject so usually volunteer to do a program on something I enjoy but want to know more about.
I don’t ever remember when I have had to give 3 different programs in a week’s time. It sure made me prioritize but think I will try not to do that again for a while.
Lynn
What to do, what to do….I had to have a good think session as I just couldn’t live with it this way. I figured that I had only a couple of choices; deal with it the way it was and add some lime green on the bottom and the outside of the flap or take the time to rip the top stitching then the seam and insert some cording covered with lime green fabric. I didn’t relish doing all that ripping and didn’t think the cording would be enough of the color to visually separate the flap from the body of the bag so opted to add to the finished flap. I covered the edge with 1/2” finished width binding and here is the new flap on the purse body.
Now doesn’t that look better? You can see the flap and the great curve now. There is a downsize though – the binding added more bulk to the flap so added to my distress when stitching through all those layers when I got the top seam stitched with lining, cording, bag front and flap but did get it sewn, albeit slowly and one stitch at a time. Will try to watch contrast on the next bag I make, hopefully before I get it stitched together but for now I do love this one. 
