the very slouchy hobo bag

I am taking part in the Monthly Craft Challenge on the Cloth Nappy Tree Forum. Every month a new challenge theme is chosen and August's theme was bags. There were quite a few pattern suggestions and I really liked the look of the Hobo Bag pattern.

Well after being sidetracked by a few things I've finally finished it. I bought this rather nice Robert Kauffman cord fabric to make it from and I already had some Amy Butler solid fabric to use for the lining.

I do like it but there are a few things I wish I'd done differently........

The pattern calls for Pellon 65 interfacing which I didn't have so I used Vilene heavy weight interfacing instead. On reflection this was not firm enough and I should have used some iron on interfacing as well as the sew in as the bag is very slouchy. I don't mind slouchy but that's not what I was looking for in this bag.

Another niggle is that I got so far into the pattern and then realised that I didn't have a magnetic snap for the bag closure, (I'm convinced I do have a few but currently I can't find them)  so I ordered one. When it arrived I promptly sewed the lining to the outer without fitting the fastener first, duh! I thought I would just give it a miss and carried on to complete the bag. Of course when I tried the bag out I realised it did need a fastner and then had to unpick a small section on both sides to insert the snap, aargh!

I did try to use top stitching thread on this project but for some reason my bobbin kept jumping causing skipped stitches and bird's nests of thread so in the end I jst stuck with standard thread. This was no doubt a tension/needle issue but I was close to loosing interest all together by this point so couldn't hack trying to solve the problem after the first couple of attempts. I used plastic canvas for the hidden bag base instead of the foam specified in the pattern and I'd definately use it again and goodness knows how much more slouchy the bag would be without it.

Anyway, here it is .... all my moaning has nothing at all to do with the pattern which is great and free too. This photo is not the greatest so will probably update it tomorrow.

Just to go on about interfacing a bit more..  I did discover some iron on interfacing at Gone to Earth called Vilene White Firm Flexible 2VS320  which sounds promising for future bag projects so I'll let you know how I get on with it. Gone to Earth have a great bag making section and I find their prices and service to be very good so would recommend them highly. I also found the Nicole Malalieu Design website which gives you loads of info on bag making including interfacing for bag making (pity I hadn't found it before I started this project).  She seems to really rate Vilene S520 interfacing which I've only tracked down in the uk here but that will have to wait for another time. Anyway if you've made it to the end of this post, thank you and goodnight :)