I am honored to be a guest blogger for Sew Mama Sew!! My review about bag stabilizers was posted two days ago and you can check it out here!

(They also posted a small bio about me which you can find here.)
If you haven't seen it already I would like to invite you to head over to Sew Mama Sew and check out my review. I am sharing my favorite stabilizer product options for making bags, with tips for the best way to use each product. Those products are By Annie's Soft and Stable, Timtex, fast2fuse Heavyweight, Stiff Stuff, Roc-Lon Multipurpose Cloth and two versions of Vilene Decovil which is more common outside the United States.
I hope you will like my review and that it will be helpful to you with your upcoming bag projects. Which stabilizers do you usually use? Maybe there's more out there, that I haven't tried yet? You are welcome to leave me a comment or post a comment over at Sew Mama Sew! :)

I am happy to finally introduce a new design to my shop!

I love smaller handbags and I was looking for a casual yet sophisticated design, a bag that you can carry everyday but which is also posh enough to be used as an evening bag when going out. This is what I came up with!
The bag measures 18 x 27 x 6 cm / 7 x 10.5 x 2.5" (height x width x depth).

The flap has an asymmetric shape with a beautiful fabric rose on the broader part. The bag closes with a magnetic snap. 

The fabric looks like a denim but is actually a lightweight quilting fabric! I love the dark blue color since it is easy to pair up with almost all your clothes.

I decided to go with a light blue cotton fabric for the lining.

Inside the bag there is a 8 cm (17") zip pocket and two slip pockets of different sizes.

The strap takes up the asymmetric shape of the flap. It is 3 cm (1 1/8") wide at the very top and tapers towards the ends, which are 1,5 cm (0.5") wide and connected to the bag with rectangular rings.   

And I tried something a new kind of interfacing:
Sharon, a follower of my blog introduced me to a product I hadn't heard of so far: it is called Roc-lon Multi-Purpose Cloth and distributed by Rockland Industries. Apparently you can use it for all kinds of crafts, not only for sewing. Sharon was kind enough to send me a sample of the product and I was eager to try it out (Sharon, thanks again)! So far, I have used Decovil and By Annie's Soft and Stable to interface my bags (and of course fusible fleece and heavy stabilizer by Pellon) but for this kind of bag I have to say the Multi-Purpose cloth was perfect! It is not fusible, so I had to baste it onto the main body fabric parts before assembing the bag. It is sturdy but bendable and therefore easy to handle, especially when you sew curves or edges.

Let me know if you are interested in learning more about the Multi-Purpose Cloth, then I would write a separate blog post about it. 

The rose petal bag turned out really nicely and thanks to Roc-lon has a nice body and doesn't "collapse". You can find this bag for purchase in my charmed Liebling Etsy shop here.
And here's for all my fellow sewing addicts who might want to make one of these bags themselves: I am currently working on the sewing pattern for this bag, which will probably be released mid August!
How do you like this new design?

I've been using the above mentioned product for quite a while now but since it's still hard to get in the US and I've stumbled upon far too many entries and questions about it in online forums I decided to blog about it, to introduce it to the American sewing community and to shed some light on all the mysteries ;-)
Decovil is a special kind of non-woven interfacing with a leatherlike handle and perfect when you make bags and wallets but also hats or decorative items. This stuff is really awesome which is why I can't stop mentioning it again and again (see also my older blogpost about Decovil).
I buy it in Germany during my trips home but I hope there will be more vendors that sell it in the US in the future. Because I'm addicted!!
At first there was only "Decovil I" but a few months later I found a second version called "Decovil I light" as you can also see above on the picture. You can already tell by the name that the second one is a little bit thinner, softer and more flexible than the first one.
For most of the handbags I make and basically for all my wallets I use the first version, Decovil I. That's the thicker one, it's a little sturdier and feels a bit like leather. Both types of Decovil have one fusible side, so you can iron it onto the wrong side of your fabric.

Decovil is really flexible and bendable compared to "regular" interfacing or especially heavy stabilizer you would use for bags, that should be less slouchy and have a nice "body". It doesn't deform, it stays flat no matter how much you bend it, and your items will end up having a really smooth surface and a great shape.

Heavy stabilizer gives me a hard time because it tends to create wrinkles when you bend it which will show through your fabric later, especially if you don't use thicker fabric like home dec fabric but for instance a lightweight quiliting fabric. And that's what I love about Decovil: it gives your items a real professional look AND touch, just like you would find it with storebought bags or wallets.

You can see on the first wallet that there are some pleats on the fabric, and no, these are not due to laziness of ironing my finished items, it's the heavy stabilizer that shows through and the wallet has this kind of crinkly look.. not ideal! Now, I admit that it's not totally unacceptable, and using heavy stabilizer will still help you give your bags or wallets the strength they need, but: once you've tried Decovil, you don't want to go back using anything but Decovil! The surface feels smooth and flat and you can even bend it and there still won't be any pleats showing on the fabric!
To sum it up: Decovil can help you draw the tiny but important line between your items looking handcrafted instead of "homemade".

One helpful hint if you decide to give it a try: always make sure you don't stitch directly on Decovil, since you will find it hard to turn your finished item right side out in the end and still have a neat and clean edge. What I recommend is to cut the Decovil piece without the seam allowance, then put it centered onto the wrong side of your fabric piece, making sure that there is no Decovil on the seam allowance of your fabric. When sewing, make sure to let the needle run exactly along the edge of the Decovil part (I always put the pieces underneath my sewing foot with the Decovil side up, so that I can acutally see where I have to sew).
(What I even do sometimes is NOT sew the Decovil onto my fabric at the beginning. Usually you will have to turn your bag or wallet right side out as one of the last steps and due to Decovil's sturdiness this can be a little tricky. Instead what I do is I turn the item right side out, then slip the Decovil inside before closing it up. I make sure it is all flat and sits perfectly in the item and then I close the seam and iron it.)

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into Decovil. Finally, here's my list of online stores that sell it to the US. Note that not all vendors sell both types though, some only carry Decovil I and not the light version.

If you want to try it out these are some of the places you can order from:
u-handbag: $11.90 per 1/2 yard plus shipping (from GB)
creative-sewing-shop.com: $ 15.00 per meter (39") + shipping (from France)
TOKO Kurzwaren via amazon.com (see link below): $14.10 per meter (39") + shipping (from Germany)
All prices are subject to change!

[update 03/02/2013: if you would like to learn more about Decovil, check out my new blogpost with detailed info about this kind of interfacing and tips on where to buy it!]

After two weeks of not having done so much sewing and designing (in my defense I have to say my dad was visiting from Germany and I was kinda busy showing him around the area) it's now time for me to get back to work.
I had my dad bring me back some special interfacing for bagmaking from Germany that I wasn't able to get a hold of in the US so far. It's called Decovil and is quite different to the interfacing and fleece I usually use. It feels a little bit like leather and give bags and purses a really professional looking shape, just like you would find it with store-bought items. At the same time it is still bendable but also provides a great amount of stability. 

I used it for my new wallet design. A trifold wallet that closes with a popper snap on a tab. There is plenty of room for your credit cards (12 card slots to be precise), two large pockets for bills, receipts or a checkbook and a roomy zip pocket for coins. This piece is already listed in my etsy shop but I am currently working on more wallets made after this design.