Skip to main content

Made by a Fabricista: Home Decor Meets Duffle!

How do you use those lovely home decor prints that are everywhere?  Every fabric store I enter has eons of choices...so many pretty colors, textures, and the heft is just awesome, especially if you want to make something that will withstand some wear and possible tear...enter the overnight bag!


Bag 'Front' pocket

This is a cute little pattern from Simplicity 2274, to be precise. I've made duffle bags for the men in my family a few years ago. The girls were a little chuffed to say the least. When I spied this pretty home decor print on Fabric Mart's site, I knew it had to be and now one lucky lady would get her own bag!


Plenty of room, even if you are a messy packer, like me!

Home decor fabric is lovely to work with. I used two yards of it for the bag and enough left over to make a little matching clutch to use for whatever the lucky daughter or daughter-in-law likes. The colors are vibrant and the design is woven into the fabric. This is a nice, quality piece and not at all like some of the home decor fabric your great-grandmother may have used. These are modern prints with fun colors!


Little matching makeup bag
I followed the directions for the bag pretty much as written but since it is a bag I am creating, I chose to eliminate a few of the outside pockets and to line the insides with a pretty orange fabric I also purchased from Fabric Mart. It sort of gives a satiny feel to the inside of a bag, which in my mind makes it girly!


Bag Side

When working with home decor fabric, I like to serge all the edges prior to assembly. I layered each piece with the the batting, lining, and of course my pretty geometric pieces and serged the edges. I just find this makes life easier when making a bag such as this. If you don't own a serger, a simple zig-zag stitch will do the trick.  


Bag bottom, see where the straps attach? 

The contrast fabric on the handles was from my stash and is a simple cotton print that highlights the green.



There is batting between the outer fabric and lining and as well as all these fabrics sewed, I had zero issues. I did use my walking foot which I love to stitch the layers together. Don't have one? No worries, you can still get a great result when sewing home decor fabric, you'll just want to pin carefully and abundantly to match your edges and keep them straight and even.


And the decorative stitch
I wanted to highlight the contrast on the bags and decided to use a decorative stitch to attach the straps to the bag. How fun!


Top zip, see, I even used a decorative stitch there! 

I enjoyed making this bag! Using home decor fabric might be something you hadn't thought of but try using it in unconventional ways. Jackets, pants, skirts, purses, totes, overnight bags, and even home decor items are all great uses for this fabric!

You can find Fabric Mart's selection of Home Decor fabric HERE


Thanks for reading!

Sue from Ilove2sew!

Comments

  1. Home dec fabric does make the best bags, because this type of fab is more sturdy than the regular garment fabric. I love the methods you used, your color selection, and the decorative stitching. I'm impressed, and inspired.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! All comments are reviewed before posting to help us eliminate spam. Your comment will be posted within 24 hours.

Popular Posts You Might Like

Made By A Fabricista: Three Bengaline Basics – A Jacket, Skirt and Vest

Hello Sewing Friends! It’s Sharon from Sharon Sews excited to share my latest Fabricista makes with you.  When Fabric Mart offered an array of stretch bengaline suiting fabrics , I choose three different fabrics to sew myself a few basics to be worn as the season transitions from winter to spring. The bengaline fabric I used is a woven rayon/nylon/lycra blend fabric with the stretch running vertically (lengthwise on the fabric) instead of horizontally (selvage to selvage).  It lends itself well to fitted and structured garments, such as jackets, pants, skirts and dresses. Because of the vertical stretch, I folded the fabric cross grain to cut out my fabric pieces so the greatest stretch would go around my body.   I used a stretch needle size 75/11 due to the lycra in the fabric. I also eliminated the interfacing as I discovered this fabric did not like fusible interfacing and I did not have any sew-in interfacing on hand.   Now let’s talk about the garments...

Made By A Fabricista: FROM FABRIC TO FASHION: - The Saguaro Set with Fabric Mart Fabric

The weather in Southwest Florida is finally starting to warm up.  With the warm air and bright sunshine, I have been thinking about refreshing my “at home” wardrobe with some fun easy pieces this year.     I have wanted to make The Saguaro Set for some time now.   When I saw the beautiful selection of rayon challis on the Fabric Mart website, I knew now was the perfect time to get it started.   THE FABRIC I researched a lot to see which fabric would work the best for this pattern.   I chose the Deep Amaranth Pink 100% Rayon Twill Challis for my project.    It is a beautiful color that to me looks more coral. The fabric is light to medium weight and has beautiful drape.  The care instructions said gentle wash or hand wash.   I prewashed the fabric in cold water on the delicate cycle.  However, after drying it on the delicate cycle, the fabric had an almost vintage distressed look.   I was a bit co...

Made By A Fabricista: Revisiting a Pattern After Five Years

Have you ever used a sewing pattern and then immediately vowed never to sew it again? Well, I have. It all began in the spring of 2020 at the start of the pandemic lockdown. I tackled sewing projects that were more challenging to help me grow as a seamstress. There was one pattern in particular that almost did me in, the Seamwork Penny shirt dress. The Penny dress pattern has a classic button-up dress shirt style bodice with a gathered skirt and pockets. It is a beautiful take on a shirt dress, and my sister and I loved it. The only downside is that it was recommended for intermediate-level sewists and I was only an adventurous beginner back then.  I think I had only ever made one button-up shirt before attempting this Penny Dress and it didn’t even have a collar! Despite all of this, I thought “Why not try it, what’s the worst that can happen?”  Thankfully the worst didn’t happen, and the dress turned out surprisingly wearable, but I had some intense frustration at the end. I...