Quilting cotton for an Amy Butler Weekender bag?

[custom172]

Hi,

I dont ever post here, but I love to lurk- everyone makes such beautiful things!

I am planning on making the Amy Butler Weekender Bag very soon and am looking at fabric options.  Can anyone comment on whether using the heavier home decor fabric is necessary or whether if quilting cotton would produce the same results.  I am not planning on making the bag exactly as in the pattern, I am going to shrink it a bit and make it so it sits on top of and attaches to the back rack of my bicycle (something like this but a bit bigger: http://www.pocampo.com/products/bags/) so the bag will need to have quite a bit of structure.  I should also mention, this will be the first bag of this complexity that I have made.

Thanks for any input!

[ComeOnGetDown]

i haven't actually made this bag, but i've read some reviews for it on sewing.patternrevie w.com

someone used regular cotton quilting fabric and said they attached fusible interfacing to it and they seemed happy with the results.  also, another reviewer made the bag at half it's original size and theirs turned out really nice.

you should check out the reviews on there, it's free to sign up and then you can read a gazillion reivews on all types of patterns.

good luck, hth

[klum78]

Hi!  If you haven't made it yet, I strongly urge you to use home dec fabric.  At least for the outside.  It will hold up better to wear and tear than a quilting cotton will.  Even a interfaced quilting coton.  I have made four bags and the home dec should really be used for the exterior.  The interior would be totally fine with an interfaced quilting weight cotton.  This is a very involved bag and it's worth the little bit of extra money to make sure that the time you spend on it will last. 
Just my two cents!

[jungrrl]

Hey guys! I just merged my thread because I somehow missed this thread in my search!

Hey all!

I just got my hands on the Weekender pattern and although it calls for home decorator weight cotton, there is a quilting cotton in my stash that I would just LOVE to use for this.  Do you think with the proper amount of interfacing it would give a similar result? I really love all of the versions of this bag that seem very upright, know what I mean? I dislike the floppy look that they sometimes get from what I assume is a lack of interfacing. 

If you think I'd be able to achieve similar results with quilting cotton and interfacing, what would you suggest?  Looks like the pattern calls for both Peltex 70 AND fusible interfacing (with Shape Flex SF101 by Pellon as a suggestion) and being unfamiliar with both of those I'm unsure how I can bump that up.

Bonus Question!

Is there premade piping that would fit with the style of this bag? (ie that is the same size as called for) Is that a cop out?