BAILEY ISLAND HOBO BAG - PART 2

  I have been doing a little sewing and here is a picture of the material that I picked out for my bag.

I have to make a lot of strips and what you do is take your strip of material and put your strip of batting on top of that and fold it over to meet in the center and then fold over again.  Then you have to sew down the whole tube.  That makes it four layers of batting and two layers of material that you are sewing through. 

It took a little time to get them started and get into a rythum that worked for me so they were all coming out to close to the exact same size.  I have some finished but I still have lots to go.  It is sort of a mindless sewing once you get the hang of it.  The material is thick so I started out with a heavy 16 denim needle and it just pounded my machine with every stitch it made.  Then I removed this needle and used a lighter thinner needle and this helped a lot.  It glided through all the layers much easier.  Here is what I have been working on.

.  This is a close up of what the finished tubes look like.

Here is what I have finished so far.

BAILEY ISLAND HOBO BAG PART 1

 

I started on my bag, I washed all of my material and left it line dry and then pressed each of them.  I then cut out my strips and I am  using six  different colors.  Now the directions  said to cut everything out that was needed to make the bag but until I make the body of the bag, I am not sure what color I will want for my trim and for the handles, etc.  So I did not do that step.  I can finish that later.

                                                       

 Next, I had to cut out strips of batting.  Now the batting said it wasn't neccesary to wash and dry the batting and they did not recommend it.  I read on and it said there would be a 3% shrinkage on the batting.  I wasn't real sure if I wanted to just worry about a 3% shortage but I know this bag will be by the pool and it is going to be getting wet.  I decided to go ahead and cut out my strips of batting and I added 1/8 inch to the width for a tiny bit of shrinkage.  After I had them all cut out, I filled up my washer with water and I dunked them into the water carefully and then pulled them out and hung them across the clothes line in my basement again very carefully so I did not stretch them out of shape.  I am hoping that they will shrink to the correct size that I need as they dry.  My thinking is to never take any short cuts as you sew.  This gives you a much better product when finished and for what it costs and the time it takes to make it, I will most likely always take the extra necessary steps to have my items looking the best that I can.  

I cannot give any measurements while making this bag.  I talked with Auntie Two who makes the pattern and this was their request to be able to post on my blog.  I certainly understand that.  I also would like anyone who does have questions to please contact me and not Auntie Two if you don't have the pattern.  If you have purchased the pattern, you can contact me or Auntie Two and that would be fine.

 

                                                      

Hopefully, I can get a little sewing started tomorrow!