Floating Interfacing

I started doing this a while back with my bags and have made it my go to technique when I need stiffness in a bag. If you have ever used Peltex, you know it can inspire the most colorful use of language. It is boardlike once fused and putting it into a bag before turning it right sides out for the last time will induce a sort of breaking/wrinkling effect that can make the outer shell of the bag nasty.  It can also drive you insane. Maneuvering it through your machine is even worse. It has great potential to knock it out of time, which actually happened to me and cost dollars to fix. While I didn't particularly need for this bag to stand on it's own, which smaller Peltex filled bags easily do, I did want rigidity to protect my loom while it was in the bag. I thought the Floating Interfacing would work and might be a technique to share.

You need your piece of Peltex cut to the size of the area you want to interface (make boardlike), but a bit smaller.  I made my Peltex a half inch less in width and length for an easier fit.  Cut the corners into a curve the size of a nickel (red lines). Peltex is fusible on both sides. Forgetting that will start the first round of foul language when you realize you've fused this nasty stuff to your ironing board. Since both sides of the Peltex are fusible you will need a piece of muslin or quilting cotton for each side of the Peltex. On my bag sides I cut the thin cotton to give me about 2 extra inches on each side which will make it easier to manipulate later. I left 3/4 of an inch on the top, and nothing on the edge that will slip into the bottom of the bag. The floating piece will only be attached to the bag on three sides. The bottom edge is free.  Once the cotton is fused to both sides of the Peltex, the corners are cut as you see on the green line above.

The fused Peltex is now slipped into the bag with its hard edges slipping under the bag seam allowances. 

With heavy duty thread and a big needle I stitched the folded edge of what I am going to call the Floater to the bag SAs. It's a simple overcast stitch. I have left some play in the thread to keep it from pulling.

Above is what it looks like once the three edges are overcast.

 The hand stitching is completed and the SAs have been cut back. Now to do the other side! Oh, make sure your Floater fabric is not something that will show through the lining.  This takes care of the Peltex in the side panels.

For the base of the bag I did a Floater that connects across the bottom of the gusset on the lining wrong sides.

You can see what a nice sharp edge the bag has even though it is floating between the lining and the outer shell. And at no point did you have to turn the bag and renew your swearing vocabulary! Now the lining will simply be hand stitched to the zipper/SA on the inside of the bag by hand and Done! More to come...................

Thanks for humoring my Cabin Fever attack. It is brutal up here this weekend. While I will get a lot done in my studio, a bit of the crazy rears it's head around mid February and the temps are 10 below at high noon. Around here we don't talk about wind chill. Just the regular temp is enough to know we are in a world of white caca. We've hit 20 belows quite a few nights in the past month. Ugh. Good luck to all on the East Coast as they hunker down for yet another one!........Bunny