Boy O boy … So for the past week I eagerly worked on creating a hobo bag. And to no avail I had to switch it up. I kept running into dimension issues for some reason.

My first attempt was salvageable and it turned out to be a cute foldable clutch. The problem was that I didn’t create a wide enough opening and the interfacing I used made it a bit too stiff or thick. I did however like the Pellon 931TD Fusible Midweight but wasn’t sure if it was as floppy as I think a hobo bag should be. The weight seems more suitable for a messenger bag.

Then my second attempt, though wide enough wasn’t deep enough and from there I was like
you know what… time to give that a break.

For some reason, patterns always look bigger than the end result and  that’s with taking into account the seam allowance. But since I have been creating my own patterns, I have to remember that it’s ok if it looks too big.

So I decided to go back to the drawing board using a previous pattern I made for clutches. And finally I had some success! Which was a relief as I immediately started to doubt my self, my sanity and whether or not I knew what I was doing when the hobo bag didn’t work out. What I did like is the Pellon Deco Fuse 520. That stuff is hard and provides a very durable structure to my designs. Someone had suggested using canvas mesh for the structure of bags but I did not like it. When I created the grey clutch a couple of months ago it had no structure and was floppy. But now that I’ve found the perfect interfacing for my clutches, I feel more confident and excited to proceed with other designs, and yes, make another attempt at creating an awesome hobo bag.

So the hours of researching interfacing and watching videos paid off, I suggest watching: Interfacing! AND Joanns has swatches available so that you can touch and test the feel and weight of all the different types of interfacing. Trust, I was so overwhelmed trying to find the interfacing while at the store but to my surprise I found a key ring of swatches next to the interfacing and was able to pick accordingly. So that made things easy.

Any who… Though the hobo bad didn’t turn out, this week wasn’t a complete fail. I kept moving forward and didn’t give up.

Next week, We’ll be back to the graphic design series, How to Rebuild your Portfolio, by  creating an identity for a Health and Wellness Spa. See you soon.