My goal for September was some English Paper Piecing (EPP) and a Hexagon Handbag (pattern from 1, 2, 3 Quilt).
I took it away on holiday and spent the evenings stitching. It took me 4 or 5 evenings to baste and then stitch all the hexies together.
I felt fairly pleased with myself and had a quick read through of the pattern to check out the next step. It was at that point that I realised that the EPP panel was just for the front of the bag and the instructions were to use one piece of fabric on the back. I wasn’t so keen on this idea so once we returned from holiday and the children were at school I cut another 36 hexies and basted and stitched them together!
The rest of the bag came together fairly easily. The pattern suggests using a canvas weight for the lining but I didn’t have anything suitable so used Soba in fog by Lotta Jansdotter and added some batting to give it some shape. This turned out to be not the best idea!
I had a pair of bamboo bag handles that I planned to use, but once the bag body was finished I realised that there was no way that they would be big enough. So I searched online for bigger bag handles and really struggled to find any larger than 6.5″. I ended up buying a pair of wooden D shaped handles after checking with Julie the shop owner about the internal measurement, it’s approx 5.5″ the best I was going to find in the UK I think.
When the handles arrived I realised that I was going to have to squidge the fabric in and I really could have done with an extra pair of hands! I cut back the wadding from the top of the bag so that there was as little bulk as possible in the top part that needed stitching over.
So it did work ok in the end, but if I ever come across wider handles I think I’d be tempted to replace these ones:
Fun was had fussy cutting too:
I really enjoyed the hand stitching, it was a good starting point for a first EPP project, not too big and it turns out quite achievable for me!
Linking up with:
Looks like you made the best of a tricky finish and your hexies look very neat!
I love your bag! What a great hexagon project. I’m going to link to it in a post on my hexagon community blog, hexagonalley.blogspot.com. Congratulations on your finish.
A smashing result with lovely muted fabrics and much nicer with hexis front and back your right!
Ive picked up wider handles at car boot sales and charity shops on old handbags, so maybe keep your eyes open for cheaper, vintage bags?
Old fashioned knitting bags when you can find them frequently have wider wooden handles for example.
: )
This is a really lovely bag, despite all the hassles. I’m glad you got it all worked out 🙂
I love it!