Crazes sweep through online quilting and sewing every now and again and it is hard to resist being swept along wit Low Volume, Farmers Wife blocks, Washi dresses and recently Weekender bags. I found these on Flickr, a huge variety of bags (click links below to take each bag to its maker) all using the same Amy Butler pattern.
1. Amy Butler Weekender Bag, 2. IMG_0966, 3. Quilted Weekender Bag, 4. Ta-da! Weekender done! #sewingsummit, 5. Weekender Bag Complete!, 6. Ok I'm off....the children have turned into wild maniacs too which is making me think I will miss them a little less - ha ha!, 7. Amy Butler Weekender Bag, 8. Finished Weekender Bag!, 9. Weekender Bag Complete!
A lot of the appeal is the challenge of mastering the pattern, whether it is the piping or the zipper or the interfacing. I am tempted, although I think it is some of the fabrics and quilt as you go effects that really pull me in. The new Echino Decoro 2012 fabric features in a couple of the mosaic bags and it is especially suited for bag making being a little heavier linen/cotton blend and the saturated colour makes the bag easy to find and hard to leave behind.
I do love the boldness of Echino prints, the deer and frames are my favourites, but whichever you choose they all seem to work together.
Eternal maker is stocking a big selection of these prints as well as essential bag hardware- bag base feet bag handles, magnetic clips, interfacing, in fact all that you will need for a weekender or many other bags, There is a "Great Getaway Bag' in Lisa Lam's Bag Making Bible, and I may use that to make a capacious sturdy bag- slightly bigger than a Weekender. It also uses fusible fleece as the main stabiliser and I find that a failsafe product- unlike blogger which is playing silly bugg*rs with me at the moment.
If like Marci you have made the Weekender and have any tips, do share!
