I Love Oil Cloth

Yesterday there were a lot of things I should have been doing but I had a bunch of oil cloth that was calling my name. 

What to do?   Make a Letty’s Bag of course. 

The piece of oil cloth I had for the outside was 19” x 38” so that is the size I used to make the bag.  I normally put fusible fleece on the back of both the outside fabric and the lining, but in this case I only used it on the lining which is 100% cotton.   BTW, the polka dot strap is also made out of oil cloth.

A couple of things I’ve learned about sewing on oil cloth.  It can be both sticky (the outside) and slippery (the inside) at the same time and you can’t iron it.  Making the strap started out being a real challenge.  The way I make them is to fold them several times and then sewing along both sides and down the middle.  Normally I just iron the strap and then take it to the sewing machine and sew.  Not so easy with oil cloth.  I didn’t want to use pins to hold it in place so after pondering the problem for a while and rejecting the idea of tape I finally came up with the perfect solution.  See the picture below, is that brilliant or what?

I have a zillion of these clips that are used for binding just sitting in a drawer.  When sewing on binding I only use one or two.    But for sewing on oil cloth they are a perfect substitution for pins.  I used them every step of the way to hold the seams in place while sewing.  

I decided not to put a pocket on the outside.  I didn’t want to cover up any of the print but now I’m not sure, maybe I should have added it.  Oh well it’s finished now and as you can see, it has lots of pockets on the inside.

I’m happy, happy, happy with it. 

Enjoy,