Holding back

Although I'm excited about making the next bag in Amy Butler's Style Stitches, the Reversible Shopper, I've been holding back. You see, I finally bought some of the woven fusible interfacing AB suggests using in the bags. I'm excited because I think it will make my bags better and more sturdy. But I've been unexcited at the need to pre-treat the interfacing (as recommended by AB and others).

The woven interfacing is 100% cotton. Not pre-treating could lead to some bad results down the line, what with shrinkage and the potential for warping and bubbling of the exterior fabrics of the bag. You can't pre-treat in a machine because any agitation could cause the glue to slough off. It has to be done by hand. From everything I've read, it is definitely worth the effort. So I knew I needed to do it.

Today I finally bit the bullet and did some pre-treating:


All it took was a hot water tub dunk and now a drip-dry. Not so bad after all! (Ahem, maybe I shouldn't mention the fact that the weight of me trying to get the interfacing to hang evenly actually tore the bar from the wall and broke a chunk off the end... but it missed my head, I was able to put it back up, and there was only minimal cursing involved! So that's still a success, right?)

Here's to some bag-making excitement!