Last Sneak Peek: Meet Camilla!

Here is the last new design for spring, the Camilla Insulated Bag. I was inspired to come up with this design at the request of a friend who was having a hard time finding a good quality lunch bag with the correct proportions. That was a good challenge for me and it grew into a rather nice design, I think! Once I had made the bag in the size she needed, I realized the possibilities this bag had in other sizes too. After getting three worked up in different sizes using the laminated fabrics, I thought it would make a nice handbag or tote too, so the pattern offers 5 different sizes with endless possibilities!

The largest size made in laminates would be great to pack up a lot of food for a picnic or snacks for a road trip. It would also work nicely for trips to the grocery for small bags of frozen items or fruit. The two other sizes as insulated bags work well for lunches, drinks, or snacks. These bags have a full velcro closure across the top just under the handles to help keep your items at a good temperature.

The non-insulated bags have interior pockets and a magnetic closure. I played around with the depth of the bags and made them a bit shallower so they would be better suited to use as handbags. You will also notice that I used my flower from the Summer Flower Tutorial to embellish some of the bags.

A tip for working with laminates: try using your walking foot. I found that it worked better than my teflon foot! Because I was quilting layers of insulated batting with the laminates, I needed an even feed under my machine. I thought I would see what the walking foot would do with the laminated fabrics. It was fabulous! I can't recommend this highly enough.

I also made some fabrics into laminates by using the iron-on vinyl from Therm-o-Web. This was an easy product to use and I got great results. It doesn't make the fabric too heavy to sew with, so I recommend trying that as well, especially if you find some fabrics that you want to use and they are not offered as laminates.

Lastly, I used some of my Echino Japanese linen for one of the large tote bags....LOVE it! When working with heavier fabrics, I make some recommendations in the pattern for the type of stabilizer that will work best, so hopefully it will help in making good decisions when you get ready to make your bags.

So, that's it! Now you have seen all the "newbies" for spring. The stock has just arrived, so it will only be a matter of DAYS before we have these listed and ready for purchase!

Happy Sewing!