« Thinking about SWAP | Main | Slouchy Hobos »

Want a New Bag???

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Ever on the lookout for a cute new bag, I found this Slouchy Hobo Bag tutorial at Craftster.org yesterday. If you put the word "tutorial" in the search box, you'll find a number of tutorial projects that you might like.

There were several projects there that I liked, but the Hobo was a style that I had seen in a local boutique recently for upwards of $300. Of course I didn't have the fabric in my stash that the designer used, but I *do* have fabric.

Oh yes, I have fabric.

The material I chose was a black ostrich skin pleather that I got from Denver Fabrics a while back. This is like a thin skin of plastic bonded to a stretchy black backing. It's not what I was expecting at all, but it looks good. I don't know how it will hold up over the long haul, though.

Take my advice, and make this bag from something else--at least the first one.

While the pleather feels good on the finished bag, it was a pain-in-the-neck to sew. If you simply must sew pleather, use a stabilizer between the feed dogs and pleather. If you don't have a teflon foot, use some between the pleather and the foot, too.

I'll show you a picture tomorrow and tell you the modifications that I'd suggest. It's just too dark and rainy here today to get a good picture of a black bag. This is so fun and quick that I may even make another today!