What I'm working on, the Amy Butler Weekender bag

Yay, it's almost Berlin time! 

We'll be going for a long weekend with friends and I've been looking forward to this since august :) Also because today is my last day of working fulltime, which means that starting next week I'll have more time for sewing.. But first I need to organise some things, like my room, closet, fabric stash etc. I promise Mieke and Jonathan! (I've got some serious hoarder tendencies and sewing might not be the best hobby for that..)

Offcourse I needed to make something for my luggage. 

After seeing Stephanie's gorgeous pendleton/wool version I knew I had to make one too. I've had the Amy Butler Weekender bag pattern for quite some time now, but I couldn't find the right interfacing. It calls for Pellon interfacing in two different weights and we don't get that in The Netherlands. My long search came to an end when I found Quiltboutique, an online store and Dorien was super helpful in answering my interfacing questions. 

For those who want to know, Peltex resembles Vlieseline s80 and Shapeflex S 101 resembles Vlieseline G700.

Encouraging words from Amy..

Cutting out all the parts was the most work, there is quite some interfacing in this bag.. But the end result really shows it, since it's super sturdy all by itself! I wanted to use a Mexican blanket that my sister bought while traveling, but she didn't let me. She did have another tablecloth from Guatemala that I was allowed to cut up. It had cost her 0.30 Dollar, so that was a good deal!

For the straps and bottom I used black leather. I wanted to make the straps completely out of the leather, but I didn't have enough, therefore I used the tablecloth on the back side. My leather also wasn't long enough for the straps, so I added D rings. 

I'm almost finished now, my machine had no trouble at all with all the layers, but it was quite hard trying to manouvre the whole bag around the needle..

Then I decided it was a good idea to mark the position of the bag feet before sewing the bottom together, let me tell you, that's not a good idea.. The position was completely wrong, so now I have a nice bottom (hehe) with 4 extra holes in it.. 

And some red wine to help with the problems.. 

I'm not excited at all to sew the lining in by hand, I often think that sewing by hand is not as sturdy as machine stitches.. But with the stiffness of the bag I'm afraid I don't have a lot of options.. Wish me luck!

You can also follow me on Instagram now, for more sneak peaks/doggy pics/little updates/sewing related stuff.. @revesmecanique