Cat in the Hat library bag

My girls are great fans of Dr Seuss books. Great for early readers, funny stories, quirky characters and brilliant illustrations. My little one is learning to read right now and she loves Dr Seuss! So when I saw this fabric on etsy I just had to get it. :) By the way, the price was about 9-10USD/yard, compared to SGD$32.95 in Spotlight which is daylight robbery!

I bought a 2/3 yard of the panel fabric and some coordinates, which would be great for a library bag! When I got the fabric, the individual panels that could be cut out were too small for a full size library bag, but the size was just perfect for holding Dr Seuss books! And you know a girl can’t have too many bags right? So I custom made a special bag just for her to tote her Dr Seuss library around!

I was also eager to try out the iron on vinyl that I purchased because I had the impression that it was going to make the fabric like oil cloth, which should make it more lasting and waterproof! I bought both the gloss and matte versions.

I started with the matte version. I love this fabric so much that I took extra care in ironing, making sure the cloth was absolutely smooth before I applied the laminate. The vinyl was quite easy to stick on and air bubbles could be pushed out easily, so far so good. Then I ironed it on. Followed instructions, and it got stuck on quite easily, no problems there too. But I noticed the matte version makes the cloth look lackluster, the colors lost the vibrance, it looked nothing like oilcloth. So I tried the gloss version next. it was shinier but had a plasticky feel to it. Nevertheless, i went on the sew the rest of the bag.

First the outer layer, then the inner layer, and any of you who have sewn a bag with inner lining and sewn in straps will know that you need to turn the bag inside out right? And that’s when disaster happened. The plastic just crinkled! It was just so crumpled that the bag looked horrible, there was no way to iron it and it also made me realize that it would be impossible to wash this bag! So after much fretting, I decided to abandon the plan and rip it out :(

The crumpled exterior after turning inside out :(

 

The lining fabric. It’s sooo cute! The pocket is made of another coordinating fabric which has red curved bands and lots of Dr Seuss characters scattered all around. I cut along the red bands and I picked her favourite Sam-I-Am and his favorite Green Eggs and Ham for this pocket. She loves to carry her fake phone (she calls it her iphone) around. I added two slots for her favorite purple pencils.

cat in the hat bag

The finished bag, the fabric was originally smooth but got crumpled by the vinyl :(
I wanted to iron it again after finishing but someone grabbed it and started stuffing it with her books. :)

Don’t you just love the quote on the bag?

What a great bag! I realized I should have added interfacing but I was not going to because i was using the vinyl at first, then it was too late so this will have to do. So now what should I do with the rest of the vinyl??? I don’t think I will ever use it again, does anyone want a sample to try?

At least I know it doesn’t work, so now I will need to get some medium weight interfacing for my Sarah Jane Children at Play bag! Going to make a ballet bag or a going out bag for the girls. Yup, another one :)

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2 Comments

  • November 2, 2011 - 1:44 pm | Permalink

    sorry Yifarn, didn’t see your previous comment. was down with a bad cold and kiddo got it too so I haven’t been checking blogs much. aiyah, too bad I only know you now, or else we could have been craft buddies in SG! :)
    anyway, i saw this today and thought of you :https://www.fabric.com/celebrate-seuss-cat-in-the-hat-pre-sale.aspx/?cm_re=SL1-_-home-_-Seuss%20Pre%20Sale

    • yifarn
      November 14, 2011 - 11:55 pm | Permalink

      I know what it’s like. flu season is going on here as well. I’ve been shopping on fabric.com recently too, so many tempting fabrics ;) Saw the new cat in the hat line too but I need to use up my stash first… can’t keep buying! arrgghhh :)

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