Amy Butler Fringed Hobo Bag

This is my contribution for the Amy Butler Sew Along. Want to join in? It’s not too late!!

So, I finally got back on the wagon and cracked open my copy of Amy Butler’s Style Stitches book again. I took a couple months off, but I had the fabric for this bag cut out since the beginning of the year, so I thought it would be a shame not to complete it.

Fabric – I made the small version of the bag (which, as you will be able to see in my last photo, is quite large). I wouldn’t recommend making the large bag, actually, I can’t imagine how big that would look! I used 2 prints from Amy Butler’s Soul Blossoms line; Disco Flower in Chocolate and Buttercups in Spearmint. This bag requires several yards of both woven and fusible fleece (I used Thermolam Plus by Pellon, I find that it’s more smooth and less crinkly-looking than the regular fusible fleece), as well as 2-3/4 yards of tassles (I settled on this strawberry-colored pom pom).

I admit that at the beginning I didn’t want to use any tassles for the bag, but after I saw some photos on Flickr of the Fringed Hobo without any fringe, I thought it really did need a bit of something to make it stand out. I did want to get some sort of wooden circle trim, but it was way too expensive for me (I wasn’t ready to drop $45 on trim for a bag).

Pattern Pieces – There were only 3 pattern pieces to cut out for this bag, plus a measured rectangular piece for the side/strap piece. I love it when I don’t have to cut and keep track of a zillion pieces, lol.

Illustrations/Instructions – Amy Butler’s instructions are very good, as always. However, if you’ve made a project from the Style Stitches book before, you’ll know that it is very lean on the illustrations, and there are no step-by-step photos. This is fine by me, but newer or more visual sewers will probably have to spend a little extra time sifting through the instructions.

When I got to the step of attaching the yoke (my green fabric) to the main panel (my brown fabric), I found it helpful to use a glue stick to anchor the yoke down. It can be tricky sewing rounded edges, and using a glue stick is a fool-proof way to avoid any puckers.

I used a pink pom-pom as my trim, and made sure to take my time sewing it down to the main panel of the bag. Sewing slowly and easing the edge of the pom pom with the curve is the best way to go. I also had to sew slowly because those big pom poms got caught at the back of my sewing machine foot as I passed each one.

Conclusion – I loved making this bag. At first I wasn’t sure about my yoke fabric (I thought it might be too green), but it’s growing on me. The style of the bag is just gorgeous, I’m so happy with it. I would recommend this for an intermediate sewer, as the last part of the instructions was a bit tricky (pressing the outside and inside of the strap in and topstitching the opening closed…with all those layers, it took me a bit of time). Super fun and cute bag, I would not hesitate to make another one.