The best interfacing for bags

Are you still looking for the best interfacing for bags?

Maybe you already know that I love to sew quilted bags? There are a few reasons for this:

1. Sometimes you don’t have the proper interfacing at hand. If you are a quilter, you probably have batting scraps. With batting and a backing (or no backing), you can make any fabric work for bags.
2. If you are a bag maker, you know how to press a bag. If you gift this bag, for the owner pressing bags is a mystery and a hard and boring task.  You can make it easier if the bag is quilted.

Even if I use fusible interfacing – the heavyweight stuff, I prefer to quilt the pieces for my bags.  The stitching keeps the layers together better and the pressing is easier.

See below some examples.

Best interfacing for bags?

You probably know that there are several foam-type interfacings on the market, and I finally tried two of them.  They are bulky and shipping is expensive if you have to buy online from abroad (if you are outside of the USA ), but you may be able to find it locally – do a search first!!

Bosal In-R-Form foam stabilizer

The two bags below were made with Bosal In-R-Form foam stabilizer. I have the single-sided fusible stuff (there are other versions also). It came folded into a plastic bag with terrible creases and I was worried that the creases will show in my final bag but it wasn’t the case! The fabric fuses on it extremely easy and fast – this was the easiest and fastest fusing I have ever done! I love this!

Here is how this foam looks like.

So this was my first bag (made with my Danielle pattern), it is a large bag and it turned out beautiful. The sewing was easy and fun and the bag, in spite of the size, it is lightweight, which is always a bonus, especially for the big bags, that hold a lot of stuff.

I free motion quilted the panels of this bag, but this wavy quilting can be done with the walking foot, as well.

The foam enhances the texture so much, you can’t get this texture with a single layer of batting!

I cut the foam the same size as my fabric pieces and still the sewing was easy. In many seams of this bag there are three layers of foam, but the seams don’t look too bulky!

But maybe not everyone likes that quilted texture? I thought about this and I made a bag with fabric just fused to the foam, and no quilting. Pressing the bag seems easier to do on the foam than on  heavyweight interfacing (like Pellon Peltex).  I made this bag for one of my sisters, so I will keep you updated on how the bag withstands long time use!

Still easy to insert the  zipper, even with the foam.

This is my Amelie pattern.

I am so happy how these bags turned out.
So, why I love this foam interfacing?

• fusing the fabric to foam is easy task
• it is easy to sew with it, even when multiple layers are involved
• it makes lightweight bags
• the bag is soft and flexible.
• the foam gives structure and the bag stands on its own
• wonderful finish with almost no effort – after the bag was finished, it needed just a lightly pressing!

I hope my experience helps and you will give this stabilizer a try. In the next days I will show you some bags made with another foam stabilizer.

Do you need inspiration for your next bag or pouch projects?
Check out my patterns below – the entire collection in one place!

 

Happy sewing!