September 2016 - Dayschool - Nuts and Bolts of Bag Making with Kathryn Thompson.

The first meeting of the new season got off to a good start with great enthusiasm. The ‘Travelling Books’ were on display, once again, alongside the pages that had been put together for the NW Regional Travelling Book. After the notices Gina handed over to Kathryn Thompson, our dayschool tutor for the day.

We had met Kathryn before and her interest, experience and skill for her work showed from the beginning. She explained how she has developed a range of techniques and styles to bring her bag making very much up to date. We all imagine bag making as a simple ‘tote’ but with new materials bags can be more sophisticated.
​Kathryn explained a range of fabrics which she has used and trialled in her bags from ‘Timtex’, which is like pelmet Vilene but a little more spongier, through to foams to form the inners, some of which have one or two sides which are fusible.

​She now uses SF101 ‘Shapeflex’ which is a woven interfacing and has a similar movement to the fabric being used for the bag and ‘Headliner’ a light, flexible and stitchable material, which is used in car roofs.

Kathryn also explained how she is very particular when using fabrics making sure the patterns are in line and centralised on the bag.


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We began by cutting out the bag shapes that Kathryn had drawn onto the SF101 and Headliner and then using the SF101 pieces, which had the added seam allowance, we cut out the pieces for our bags. We needed a front, back and pocket in our main fabric and the same in the lining material.
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Next the pieces were prepared ready for stitching. The bag fabric was ironed and the Headliner placed white side down onto the wrong side and then sandwiched between with the SF101 piece, which was placed with the rough side down. Then using the ‘monster’ steam iron the pieces were fused together.
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Darts were then stitched in the front, back and pocket and a lining piece attached to the pocket. The main body of the bag was stitched together, which was quite tricky due to the thickness of the fabrics. Another tip for successful bag making was that Kathryn recommended using ‘Clover’ clips to hold fabrics together.

The back room ladies appeared to have great fun throughout the day catching up with each other’s news as well as managing to do some stitching.

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After lunch Kathryn demonstrated how to sew a zip into an internal pocket. Our design didn’t have one but it was useful to know how to do this for future reference.

When the bag was turned through a few of us panicked as we thought we had sewn the pocket on the wrong way but soon realised it could be turned to the front of the bag very easily. The finishing touches included cutting out, folding and stitching the strap and making the tab for the fastening.

The lining was stitched with a gap at the bottom to turn the bag the right way round eventually and once the connectors and tab had been positioned the lining was stitched onto the bag and turned through (or birthed as some would say).
We used magnetic poppers to fasten the bag and connectors to attach the bag strap to the bag, which gave them a professional finish alongside rivets on the handle.
It was a very full on day and although not all the bags were finished great progress was made and several were photographed. I am certain they will add another dimension to our exhibition in February.
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Thanks to Kathryn for an enjoyable day.
​Ann Reading